


Capturing Our Dreams

by Tren



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Gold & Silver & Crystal | Pokemon Gold Silver Crystal Versions
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Injury, Legendary Pokemon, Pokemon Battle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-04-06 05:39:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 33,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19056322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tren/pseuds/Tren
Summary: When he was six years old Caleb encountered a mysterious pokemon.Ten years later, with the knowledge and experience of a pokemon capturer, he sets out to find the pokemon which nobody believes he had seen. Will his stubborness and help of his mentor, all-aroundtootalented ex-champion, be enough to overcome all the difficulties standing in their way? And will Team Rocket ever give up on their schemes?





	Capturing Our Dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morbane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/gifts).



> Pokemon Red and Silver were one of my favourite games when I was a child.
> 
> Thanks to Serie11 for the beta.
> 
> I put the list of Caleb and Zahra's pokemon at the end. Some of them are story spoilers, so discretion is advised.

_As he raised his head, Caleb froze._

_Before him was the biggest and most majestic pokemon he had ever seen. It was twice his size, with long, flowing, brown fur._

_Caleb remembered dropping the ball he had ventured into the tall grass to recover. It bounced once off the ground, and then slowly rolled toward the awe-inspiring pokemon._

_It was at least twice the size of Caleb. Granted, he had yet to hit his growth spurt, but he was sure that even if he was taller it wouldn't make him feel any bigger. It was less the size, and more the sheer strength and majesty that radiated from that pokemon, which commanded respect._

_In its sharp eyes, Caleb could see deep wisdom._

_As the dropped ball finished its course and gently bumped into the pokemon’s leg, the creature let out a loud roar._

_Caleb reflexively closed his eyes, afraid that he had somehow angered the beast. A strong gust of wind hit him, making him fall on the ground with a yelp._

_When Caleb opened his eyes, the majestic pokemon was gone, leaving behind no proof of its existence._

*

Caleb moved forward, directing his flashlight toward any suspicious movement in the cave. 

A familiar sound of flapping wings caught his attention.

“Shockwave,” he ordered automatically. 

A loud baa told him that his order had been received and a moment later the attack flew past him, hitting an incoming Zubat.

Tasting the electricity clearly made Zubat reconsider its life choices, as it quickly fled. Caleb didn't pursue.

“Good job, Meep,” he praised, patting his Mareep on the head. Static electricity jolted through his hand, but he was used to it at this point.

Meep cried happily, her tail wagging from side to side. The ball at its end was shining with bright light, illuminating the cave. However, the wagging tail made the shadows dance around wildly.

Caleb had to squint, but he noticed his target amidst the discoteque-like moving light.

He pushed the rock close to where he had noticed the movement—hiding behind it was a Dunsparce. 

“Meep, Thunder Wave!” he ordered. Dunsparce seemed to want to escape, but was too slow at digging itself underground. The attack hit it, and Caleb watched as the paralysis set in. “Great, get back!”

Mareep jumped behind him. Caleb still needed her to illuminate the cave, so he didn’t hide her in pokeball. 

“Go, Vee!” he shouted, as his Eevee appeared before the paralyzed Dunsparce. “Bite!”

The attack was effective, cutting down most of Dunsparce’s strength. Caleb decided to risk it, and threw an empty pokeball at it.

There was a tense moment as he waited for the pokeball to stop moving, but then it finally did. Caleb felt relieved, as he picked it up.

He hid Vee and then let out the caught Dunsparce.

“Sorry for scaring you,” he said, as the pokemon settled heavily in his arms. He used to be under the illusion that Dunsparces were smaller, but now that he spent his day battling and catching them, he was well aware of how ignorant he had been. He could barely hold one in his arms.

Still, he held the snake securely against his chest with one hand, letting its head rest on his shoulder, while he used his left hand to fish in his bag for necessary items.

“Ah there it is,” he muttered, finally getting a hold of Full Heal. He injected it into Dunsparce, feeling the pokemon relax in his hands. Then he pulled out Fresh Water and also fed some of it to Dunsparce.

Once he made sure that the pokemon had been healed, he placed it back on the ground.

“You are free to go,” he said, releasing Dunsparce. The snake pokemon looked confused for a second, before its tail moved quickly, digging a hole in the ground. A few seconds later Dunsparce was gone, hidden under the ground.

“I think that was the thirtieth,” Caleb muttered to himself. “That’s probably enough, we should head back outside.”

Meep answered him with loud baa of confirmation.

*

The sun was blinding after spending so much time in the cave. Once they left Caleb hid Meep in the pokeball. His pokemon was probably extremely tired and while Meep loved to walk together with her trainer, Caleb wasn’t about to let her injure herself.

“I promise I will let you out once we are back home,” he promised, before putting the pokeball on his belt.

Dark Cave wasn’t very far from Violet City, but it would still take Caleb almost an hour to get back home. He considered using his bicycle, but given how many ledges were on the way, he decided against it.

As he started to slowly walk towards the city, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

“There you are, I was getting worried about you!”

“Oh, Anthony, it’s good to see you!” Caleb greeted the large man in hiking gear. He had placed most of his things on the ground and seemed to be taking a break, as he sat on a blanket. “Thank you for giving me the tip.”

The man laughed in a loud voice.

“It was nothing! Hope you caught a whole bunch of those Dunsparces. Outside of the mating season they usually stay hidden underground,” he explained, then patted the empty part of blanket. “Come on, sit down. You must be tired.”

Caleb considered the invitation. He wanted to get home quickly since he was sure his mom would be waiting with dinner, but it was also true that he needed some rest.

“I guess I should take a small break,” he decided, sitting down. Hiker Anthony quickly pulled out some snacks from his bag and shared them. Caleb thanked him, as he took a bag of crisps.

“Hope your professor will be happy with what you caught. He must be really thankful to have such a hard-working helper. You came to Violet City in half a day after I called you, that's some serious dedication.”

“Well, I had to make sure to get here before the swarm dispersed,” Caleb admitted. He didn’t feel like what he did was all that special. It was normal within this line of work.

Not to mention, he needed to be able to move fast if he wished to ever find that poke— 

“Still, I wouldn’t be able to work like that. Flying all over Johto to catch pokemon? Nah. Actually, I heard you even went to Kanto a few months ago,” Anthony continued, unaware of Caleb’s thoughts.

“Yes, I wanted to consult a professional before committing,” Caleb confirmed. “She taught me a lot about capturing pokemon and how to best help a professor I’m working with.”

“Was she a beauty?” Anthony asked, obviously deciding that the intricacies of pokemon research were much less interesting than Caleb’s mentor.

“I guess,” Caleb said, noncommittally. Zahra was a tall and proportional woman. Even though she always dressed practically for her work, her bright disposition and inner strength definitely made her appear _beautiful_. Her piercing eyes would find any pokemon hiding in the tall grass. And whenever he thought of her, Caleb would think of her brown hair pulled into a ponytail, which he constantly looked at, as he kept trying to keep up with her.

She was much more impressive than a gloomy person like him.

“She has a lot of qualities I lack,” Caleb added, when Anthony kept looking at him in disappointment.

“Is that supposed to be a complement?” Anthony asked, visibly unsure as to what to make of that comment.

Caleb pushed a handful of crisps into his mouth to avoid answering further questions.

*

Caleb rather liked his mother.

She wasn’t disappointed when he told her, he didn’t want to pursue the goal of becoming a pokemon champion. Not that it was unusual. A vast majority of trainers who left their homes with that goal would return weeks or months later, realizing that they were unprepared for the hardships standing in their way.

Caleb was slightly different in that regard. What deterred him wasn’t the difficulty of the journey, but rather his lack of competitive spirit.

To put it simply, there was only one quality that a pokemon champion truly needed—a desire to keep on winning. Everything else could be substituted or earned, except for that one quality, which Caleb simply lacked. He couldn’t see any meaning in winning or losing a fight beyond how it impacted his finances. Losing didn’t motivate him to improve and winning gave him little joy.

Which was why he was grateful that his mother didn’t make a fuss and easily accepted his wish to become a research helper instead.

It was an unglamorous job, really. Even though the pokemon were such a fundamental part of people’s lives, governments were stingy with allocating money for research. Professors were usually short on funds for their research and helpers were the ones that suffered the most when it came to cutting the cost.

Helpers weren’t employed as much as given a pokedex and asked to do their best, because there was no financial support a professor could offer them. They would have to earn money on their own in addition to helping with the research. For that reason Professor Oak, who invented the first pokedex, decided to give it to trainers who were aiming to become the champion. The reasoning was that they would gather data while concentrating on their own goals.

Recently, though, things were starting to change. People dedicated to the cause started to approach professors, wanting to help them despite those drawbacks.

Caleb was one of those people, though his reasons were quite selfish.

*

“Thank you for the meal,” Caleb muttered as he finished his dinner.

His mom smiled at him, happy that her cooking was appreciated. 

“Will you be leaving tomorrow already?” she asked, as she collected the plates.

“Yes, I finished capturing Dunsparces for professor Elm. I plan to fly to Goldenrod City tomorrow, since I heard the pokemon I left at daycare center laid an egg. Hopefully, it’s another Eevee, so I can collect data for Zahra. After that I will probably resume other research projects I was given.”

“Ever the wanderer,” she muttered with a sigh.

“By the way, did you find what I asked you about?” Caleb said, remembering other business that brought him back to his hometown.

“Oh, yes. I found that box, though it's gotten pretty dusty. Be careful when opening it.”

“Of course, mom,” he assured, already feeling impatient to check its contents.

His mom narrowed her eyes slightly, as if suspicious of his enthusiasm.

“You are not a sentimental type. What made you suddenly want to check the items from your childhood?” she asked, absently tapping her finger on the table.

“It's… nothing important…” Caleb said, wanting to avoid the topic. It was the only thing the two of them kept disagreeing on. Caleb didn't want his short visit home to feel unpleasant.

Unfortunately, his mother was sharp and picked up on his discomfort.

“Don't tell me this is about that Arcanine—”

“It wasn't an Arcanine!” Caleb interrupted her. He didn't want to rehash this discussion, but it was one thing he would never compromise on. “I've seen a few Arcanines in Kanto. They were nothing like that pokemon!”

“You are just misremembering it. You were only six years old back then,” she pointed out. “It's been ten years since you saw it, you probably barely remember it.”

Caleb clenched his fist. It was annoying, but his mother was right. After those ten years what Caleb mostly remembered was the impression of strength and majesty that emanated from the pokemon. He could barely recall any physical features.

“So what? It doesn't change the fact that it looked _nothing_ like an Arcanine! It's fur was different color!”

“You just happened to see a shiny one,” his mother explained with so much confidence that one could think she was there.

“There were no reports of any Arcanine sightings in the area!”

“Some passing trainer probably took his Arcanine for a walk and then returned it to pokeball,” she insisted. “There were also no sightings of any unknown pokemon.”

Caleb bit his lips. He had enough.

“I’m going to my room,” he said, trying to sound unaffected, but instead it came out like a tantrum of a little kid. Caleb winced at the thought. He was supposed to be _better_ than he used to be. After all, he would never be able to achieve his goal if he didn’t outgrow his insecurities.

He turned around and left. He didn’t do anything ridiculous, like closing the door with too much force, but he could still feel the shame burning inside of him.

He wished he was more collected. More confident in his claims.

Instead, he felt like the boy from ten years ago, who found out the hard way that nobody would believe his claims unless he had proof.

*

His mother was right. Caleb wasn’t a sentimental person when it came to his possessions.

He pulled out the old toys out of the box without even sparing a glance at them. They weren’t what he came here for.

What he wanted was at the bottom of the box—stacks of paper with his old drawings and notebooks filled with his observations. Caleb quickly pulled them out. He decided to start with the drawings since they would be the easier to go through. 

Meep and Vee, released from their pokeballs, curiously investigated the old toys. Vee seemed to be fascinated by a small rubber ball, which by some miracle hadn’t deflated over years. Caleb glanced at them from time to time, making sure that they didn’t do anything dangerous.

After looking through the papers, Caleb found three pictures he had made of the mysterious pokemon he encountered in his childhood. Only one of them was any good, though. The first one Caleb had found had been made using paint and consisted of several colorful splashes. Meanwhile, the third picture seemed to have been stained by juice at one point, distorting the lines and recoloring some parts.

The second picture was the only usable one, featuring a picture clearly made by a child of a brown pokemon.

It wasn’t good, but looking at it jogged Caleb’s memory. As imperfect as the picture was, it helped fill the gaps in his memory—the mask-like face of the pokemon, strange protrusions coming out of its sides, and cloud-shaped tail that extended through its back.

Caleb’s memories were still fuzzy, but at least he remembered the pokemon’s silhouette now. Caleb smiled to himself. It seemed he was making progress. 

He was surprised when he realized that at some point Vee and Meep climbed the bed to look at the picture he was holding. Meep’s head was slightly inclined as if it was trying to understand what the picture was depicting. Meanwhile, Vee was enthusiastically wagging his tail, as if sensing his trainer’s excitement.

“This… this is our target!” Caleb explained, moving his hand so that both pokemon could clearly see the picture. “I want to meet that pokemon again and then…”

Caleb paused, realising he had never thought that far. Until recently he believed his chances of ever meeting this pokemon again were so slim that he never gave a serious thought as to what he would do.

Would he take a photo? Try to capture it? Try to communicate with it?

He didn’t know, but there was one thing he was certain he wanted to achieve.

“...and then we will prove to everyone it exists.”

*

The notebooks unfortunately contained no hints. Caleb used them to make notes about interesting things, almost like dairies, but unfortunately his child self was mostly concerned with the fact that neither his friends, nor family believed him when he told them about the mysterious pokemon he saw.

It was sad, but understandable. Teenage Caleb was upset about that, too.

Caleb wondered how his child self would feel about the present situation. Would he be proud that Caleb was now taking steps to find that pokemon? Disappointed that it took him so long?

Caleb wasn’t sure. He had since lost the sight of what his six-year old self actually was like. He felt like he was less gloomy. But maybe that wasn’t true? Maybe he was just unaware of his unfavourable personality back then? Caleb was certainly more self-aware now, but would this help him fulfill his ambition?

There were many questions with no answers.

Vee gently pushed at his hand as if to draw Caleb out of his self-deprecating thoughts.

*

Caleb left the next day. His mother acted as if their yesterday’s argument didn’t happen, pushing a bag with food into his hands and wishing him safe journeys. Caleb did his best to also pretend there had been no argument.

Still, he couldn’t get rid of the bitter taste in his mouth as he said his goodbyes.

*

Route 31 was his first stop.

“So, I would be grateful if you could call me if you see this pokemon,” Caleb explained to Wade, as he showed him the picture.

The bug catcher angled his head as if he hoped the picture would make more sense from a different perspective.

“Ya sure this is an existing pokemon?” he asked, visibly doubting Caleb.

“Yes, and if I find it with your help I will be sure to credit you for helping to discover a new pokemon,” Caleb replied evenly.

Wade’s eyes immediately lit up at the thought of becoming famous.

“Okay, now you are talking!”

*

“Wow, since when do you take requests from kids?” Todd asked, looking critically at the picture. “Are you sure they aren’t just pulling your leg?”

Caleb remained calm, because in his other hand he was holding an egg he just got out of the daycare center. It would be irresponsible of him to damage it.

“Yeah, this totally looks like someone played a prank on you,” Gina admitted, squinting at the drawing.

“I’m pretty sure that kid really saw it,” Caleb said, struggling to remain calm. “So could you call me if you ever catch sight of this pokemon?”

The two of them shrugged, as if to placate him.

Caleb was adult enough not to throw the egg at them.

*

“There are no Yanma here, Arnie,” Caleb said, trying to remain calm. Even if he had been close by, he hated to waste time on prank calls.

“You just missed them!” Arnie assured him, gesticulating wildly. “There was a whole swarm here, there were so many of them! They were everywhere! I was sure they would stay here for a while, but then all of them…”

“Okay, I get it. Could you help me with something else, Arnie?” Caleb interrupted him. He knew from their phone conversations that the bug catcher liked to talk a lot.

Arnie blinked, surprised by the sudden shift in conversation.

“Something else?”

“Yes, could you please call me if you see this pokemon?”

Arnie studied the drawing for a moment.

“This is not a bug,” he finally said. “I’m only interested in bugs.”

Caleb just hung his head.

*

“No Tauros sightings, if that’s what you came here for,” Dana said, her eyes glued to the phone.

“Ah, no, I just wanted to ask for help with something else,” Caleb said quickly. He wasn’t good with handling girls like her.

“That will cost extra,” she replied without missing a beat.

“But I’m not paying you?” Caleb said, unsure how to take that statement. She agreed to help him after he had defeated her in a pokemon battle, because she was short on cash and couldn’t pay up.

She finally moved her eyes away from the phone to squint at him.

“I don’t mean it _literally_ ,” she said as if it was obvious. “I meant that I want something in return.”

Caleb dreaded what she could ask of him, but he swallowed the fear. He couldn’t let this stop him.

“Okay, I get it. I will pay,” he agreed, pulling out the drawing to show it to Dana. “I’m looking for the pokemon in this picture, could you please call me if you see it?”

“Oh, it’s just that? I can do this for free,” she decided, changing her mind so quickly Caleb felt his own head spin.

“That would be a great help…” he replied weakly.

He would definitely get a headache later.

*

“...so if you could call me that would be helpful,” Caleb finished his pitch hoping that this time it would work out. He was starting to regret the fact that his meticulously built phone network wasn’t a fax network instead. It would definitely save him a lot of time.

“Kid, I really wish I could help you,” Huey said, his huge hand scratching the nape of his neck. “But you know I work in this lighthouse, right? I mostly spend time here or in the docks, and this pokemon doesn’t look like it’s a water type.”

“You… have a point,” Caleb agreed, angry at himself for not realizing sooner that a sailor probably wouldn’t have much chance of encountering the elusive pokemon.

This whole thing was getting to Caleb more than he thought, if he missed something so obvious.

*

“Hello Caleb, am I not interrupting?”

“Oh, it’s you Professor Elm. No, you aren’t,” Caleb said, putting down the pokemon egg. It seemed that it wouldn’t be long before it hatched. “What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to thank you for all the data on Dunsparce. It seems I will spend the next month just going through it. However, there is another thing I would likeyour help with.”

“Of course, what is it?” Caleb asked with no hesitation.

“Do you remember that incident on Lake of Rage three years ago?”

*

Caleb wasn’t really a fan of fishing.

“So you are checking if there was an increase of shiny Magikarps here?” Brent asked to make sure. He was gently petting Vee. Apparently, he had never seen an Eevee in person and Caleb didn’t have the heart to refuse his request to play with the pokemon a bit.

Fortunately, Vee was friendly enough not to mind getting attention from someone other than his trainer. He definitely didn’t take after his father in that regard.

“Yes, three years ago a shiny Gyarados caused havoc during the Team Rocket incident. Back then the upcoming pokemon champion caught him. It seemed to be the end of the story. However, since then rumors started that the said Gyarados has caused a raise in the shiny population of Magikarp before it had been caught. Professor Elm wants me to check if there is any credibility to those rumors,” Caleb explained, happy to be able to break the monotony of fishing.

“Is that why you’ve been tagging all the Magikarps you catch before releasing them?” Brent asked, looking curiously at the tagging device lying next to Caleb.

“Yes. Honestly the guys in charge of this lake should be tagging all those Magikarps, but apparently all the helpers they rented had been slacking off, so…”

“That’s a really thankless job you are doing, huh?” Brent said, throwing a rubber ball so that Vee could catch it. Caleb was glad that at least his pokemon was having a good time. 

“I knew what I was getting into,” Caleb said, unbothered by the realities of his occupation. “More importantly, that picture I showed you…”

“Ah, right, here,” Brent said giving the drawing back to Caleb. “I can’t remember where, but I feel like I’ve seen something like this before.”

Caleb snapped his head at the pokefan.

“You’ve seen this pokemon?” he asked in disbelief.

“No! It’s more like… I feel like I’ve seen a similar drawing before. But I can’t remember where,” Brent admitted, creasing his brows as if trying to remember.

“A drawing like that?”

“Yeah, sorry, but I can’t remember where it was. I think it was when I was touring Johto with my family as a kid. We’ve been to all main cities back then.”

Caleb lowered his head. He hoped for something more, but at least it was some sort of hint.

“Ah, but I remember one thing!” Brent added suddenly. “This wasn’t the only drawing I saw back then. There were two more. A total of three pokemon. And this, I think, was one of them.”

*

Caleb spent almost a month at Lake of Rage.

He was starting to relate to its name due to how monotonous his work was. Caleb liked to search for pokemon in tall grass, but water just wasn’t his element. Sitting for hours at the edge of the lake with the fishing rod was the opposite of what he liked about his occupation.

Not to mention, he would never find the mysterious pokemon he was searching for like that.

One positive thing was that during that time the egg had finally hatched.

“This is your sister, Vee!” Caleb announced proudly, as he showed the newborn Eevee to him. “Her name will be Vea.”

Vea seemed quite happy, as was her brother.

As he watched the two Eevees play together, Caleb almost wished he had siblings himself.

*

“Are you taking part in this week’s Bug Catching Contest?”

Caleb had to balance the phone carefully, as he was busy grooming Meep’s wool when Wade called. He had already seen for himself that pokegear was prone to breaking when it came in close contact with the electrically charged wool.

“No, sorry, I’m currently in Blackthorn City. I need to stay for a few days to compile data on Dratini for Professor Elm,” Caleb said, as he gently placed down the special comb he was using to groom Meep. Mareeps only needed to be sheared once a year, but Caleb liked to make sure that Meep’s wool stayed daglock free at all times. 

“Awwwww, man, when will you take part? I’ve been reminding you for a year now. Don’t you need some bug data too?” Wade complained loudly. “I’ve been hoping you could show me some cool bug pokemon.”

Caleb felt a small pang of guilt. When he asked Wade for reminders on when Bug Catching contests happened, he wasn’t quite aware that Wade’s mom never let him journey far from Violet City. As a result, Wade relied on Caleb when it came to getting to see new bug pokemon. Caleb managed to placate him a few months ago by giving him a Pineco, but it seemed the effects had already worn off.

“Sorry, my work comes first. But I promise to check it out when I’m not busy.”

“You’d better, man. I’m really counting on you.”

The phone call ended after that. Caleb really hoped that Arnie would call with a report of a real Yanma swarm soon. He didn’t have time for Bug Catching contest.

*

“And then my mom said that I totally should stop being selfish and accept my responsibilities. As if milking Miltanks is something I want to do for life. My three siblings are more than enough for this job! Is it so bad that I want to find my own way in life?!”

“I think that’s pretty normal,” Caleb said noncommittally as he slowly inched through the tall grass. He knew there was no point in listening too closely. Whenever Dana called him it was because she needed to vent to someone. And because she was too self-conscious to complain to her friends, she would usually call Caleb instead.

Apparently, the fact that they had a working relationship, rather than friendship, meant that she could tell him all her problems.

“Damn right, it should be normal!” she agreed strongly, making Caleb move the phone away from his ear for a moment. “It’s not like I dislike Miltanks. I act like I hate them around mom and dad so they would leave me alone, but I actually like them. I just… I don’t want all my life to revolve around Miltanks. I’m afraid I will really start to hate them if I do that… and I don’t want that! Milky, Star, Milkyway, Moomoo, Moomoon, Moomore, Moomost… I like all of them. I don’t want to grow up into someone who will hate them!”

“Maybe you should be more honest?” Caleb suggested, as he got on his knee to check a footprint in the ground. It was slightly faded, but— 

“Honest?!” Dana scoffed as if the very concept of clearly communicating her feelings to people was ridiculous. “I can’t just tell them that!”

“Why not? I think you were pretty convincing just now,” Caleb pointed out. “I’m sure your parents will take you more seriously if they hear how deeply you thought about it.”

“You… you really think so?”

“Sure. I know it’s difficult to put yourself out there. However, if you feel so strongly about it, then you should take the risk,” Caleb said, looking around to see if there were any other traces of the pokemon he was tracking. 

“I guess… maybe,” Dana muttered, sounding much more timid. “I will think about it… Thanks for listening to me.”

“No problem. Bye,” Caleb replied emotionlessly, as he disconnected and returned to his work.

*

“Arnie, I feel like I shouldn’t be stating the obvious… but there are no Yanma here,” Caleb said, spreading his arms as if to encompass the lack they were experiencing.

“You just missed them out!” Arnie assured him. “They flew through here pretty fast!”

Caleb had many thoughts about the situation and the fact that at this point he had lost count of how many times he received fake calls about Yanma.

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered, too tired to start an argument.

*

“So are you taking part in this week’s Bug Catching Contest? I heard from my friend that last week someone caught a Pinsir! Can you believe it?!”

“That... sounds incredible…” Caleb muttered blearily. He had spent the whole night looking for Hoothoots and the phone call woke him up from the much deserved sleep.

“Don’t you want a Pinsir? They are really cool with their giant horns! I heard they are super strong, too! If you go this week, I’m sure…”

“Sorry, I have work to do,” Caleb apologized and then disconnected. 

He muted the phone and returned to sleep.

*

“Any luck with finding that strange pokemon?” Brent asked during his next call.

“Unfortunately, no,” Caleb admitted. The lack of progress was pretty discouraging.

“Sorry to hear that. By the way, would you want a rematch? I feel like this time I will be able to put up some fight,” Brent said with a bravado that was clearly fake.

Caleb smiled a bit at that. It was nice that someone was trying to encourage him, even if Caleb didn’t enjoy battles all that much. Still, it was the best way for him to earn money.

“Sure! Just give me a few hours to get there!”

*

“Arnie…”

“They were here! Really! If you were just slightly faster—”

“Arnie…”

“I’m not lying, they really were here! They just flew by quickly, so—” 

“Arnie, if you’re feeling lonely just say so. I promise I will still come.”

That seemed to finally give Arnie enough of a shock to stop his prattle.

“Really?” he asked timidly, as if afraid of the answer he would receive.

“Yeah, so please, only call about Yanma when they really are here.”

Arnie lowered his head.

“I’m sorry. I promise I will do better from now on,” he said, sounding apologetic.

*

Caleb groaned loudly.

It had been half a year since he found that old drawing with the mysterious pokemon he saw in his childhood.

He had made no progress since then. He hoped he would at least find a small hint during his travels, but it seemed he had been overly optimistic in that regard.

“Am I doing something wrong, Vee?” Caleb asked, holding the pokemon in his hands.

Vee called softly, trying to reassure his trainer.

They got interrupted, as the phone suddenly started ringing. Caleb picked it up without looking at the screen.

“It’s Caleb.”

“Hey, Zahra here! You’ve been terrible at keeping in contact you know. You only ever send me mails with Eevee data. Not that I don’t appreciate them, but you could call your instructor sometime. Maybe ask for tips.”

“I’m doing fine without you, thank you,” Caleb said, not even trying to sound polite.

“Sure, given that you sound like you’ve drank expired milk, I’m sure everything is going great for you,” Zahra said, seemingly unphased by Caleb’s thorny disposition. “Well, this might be good news for you, then. I’m coming to Johto soon.”

“Wait, Professor Oak finally got extra funding for the research?” Caleb asked in disbelief. Zahra had been trying to get him to do research into Johto’s pokemon for two years now.

“Yeah, finally! I thought I would never get to visit Johto. Like, I could try to do it on my own, but I would feel bad for Professor Oak if I gathered all that data and he had no money to properly research it. The guilt would be way too high.”

“I guess,” Caleb muttered. He never really put that much thought into the data he sent to Professor Elm. He just went where he was asked to.

“Anyway, I’ve never been to Johto and could use a guide. That’s where you come in. In return I will help you with whatever thing _you are doing so fine at without me_.”

“Guess I don’t get to choose.”

“Nah, not really. Besides, for all the complaining I know you are happy to see me,” she said. Caleb could almost feel the smile in her voice. Not for the first time he wondered where she got all that confidence from. “I will send you exact info once I buy the ticket to Johto. For now I’m still coordinating stuff with Professor Oak. So hang in there for now, and see you soon!”

“See you,” Caleb said, feeling much too self-conscious.

He already forgot how difficult Zahra was to deal with. Still, as annoying as it was, she was right.

If there was someone who could help Caleb track that mysterious pokemon, it would be none other than Zahra.

*

The S.S. Aqua arrived on schedule. Caleb who watched the ship dock, wondered how it would feel like to travel on it to Kanto. When he traveled he used the magnet train, since it was faster and cheaper. 

That probably spoke of how different he and Zahra were. It was just like her to choose a more entertaining option over the more practical one.

Caleb waited in the corner of the dock, slightly away from the crowd that gathered to meet people leaving the ship. He didn’t like being caught in crowds. With his unimpressive stature it would only lower the chances of Zahra spotting him.

His reasoning turned out to be correct, because he soon saw Zahra completely ignore the large crowd and then move toward the place where Caleb had been sitting.

“It’s just like you to sit away from everyone and hide in the shade like a Haunter. Long time no see, Caleb,” she said waving to him.

“And it’s just like you to still find me with no problem. Glad to see you again, Zahra,” he greeted her, getting up from the box he had been sitting on.

Zahra hadn’t changed much since he last saw her. Her ponytail was slightly shorter than he remembered, but her brown wavy hair was exactly the same. She also seemed slightly more tanned. Probably a result of her spending less time in caves and more time outdoors in pursuit of pokemon.

When Caleb stood up, Zahra squinted at him.

He had a feeling he knew where this was going. He had to fight the urge to duck his head, so that he could hide from her gaze behind his fringe

“Wow, you didn’t grow at all,” she teased him with a mischievous grin. That was to be expected. For all her admirable qualities, some parts of Zahra’s character were simply incorrigible.

“No, I grew. Your head swelled so much that you gained a few centimeters yourself, which is why you can’t tell,” he replied dryly.

Zahra burst out laughing.

“Damn, I missed how prickly you could be,” she said, sounding honest, while wrapping him into a strong embrace. “Glad to see that my only student is doing well.”

“I’m not really your student,” he protested weakly.

He knew neither of them really believed that.

*

Zahra had a tendency to lead whenever she and Caleb worked together, probably because she was five years older, had more experience in their field of work, and unlike Caleb actually managed to become a pokemon champion for a short while. Therefore, Caleb felt slightly anxious as this time he was the one who had to guide Zahra.

It wasn’t even her fault. Zahra liked to tease him abouthis height, but she had never questioned his competence. It was one of the reasons why he enjoyed her company so much.

The problem was exactly that Caleb feared doing something that would make her lose that respect.

Caleb knew it was stupid. He didn’t feel so anxious when he travelled with her during his stay in Kanto. However, almost a year of separation apparently made his respect for her rise so high, he started to be nervous in her presence.

This wouldn’t do. He needed to do something about it.

“How was the travel? Was riding on the boat fun?” he asked, hoping to bridge the silence.

The two of them were walking outside of the city. Zahra didn’t feel like flying to New Bark Town right after her sea journey, so both of them agreed to camp outside the city and resume their travel tomorrow.

“It was incredible!” she said, as her eyes shined. “The trainers there were _loaded_! I got back all the money for the ticket in the first three battles! I was so worried about my budget for this journey, but now I can easily manage for at least a month, if not more.”

Caleb smiled slightly at that. Pokemon capturers had to be good in battles, as this was their primary source of income. 

“That’s good to know. Maybe I will also take a ship next time I travel to Kanto,” he mused.

“Will you manage? You already look slightly green whenever you swim on a pokemon. I feel like you are the type to get seasick easily,” she asked, sounding genuinely worried.

“Guess I will have to buy a medicine to be on the safe side…” Caleb decided, feeling the conversation turn awkward once more.

*

The night was clear and not too cold, which was nice. They could just set out their sleeping bags, without needing to set up a tent.

“What do we do about the night shift?” Caleb asked.

Many trainers would spray Repels before going to sleep to ensure no pokemons approached them, some did nothing hoping that luck would be on their side, and then there were people like Caleb and Zahra.

“Ripper can do half a shift. He’s good at it,” Zahra said.

“Okay, then you can take the first half, I will have Pear take the second half.”

Zahra nodded, releasing her Scyther from the pokeball.

“Hey, Ripper,” Caleb said, greeting the pokemon. He wasn’t sure that Scyther remembered him, but he liked to stay on his good side.

Ripper seemed to nod in acknowledgement.

“Are you up for the night guard, Ripper?” Zahra asked. 

Caleb had yet to see any of her pokemon refuse her request. Maybe it was her charisma that worked not only on people, but also pokemon. Zahra also seemed to be very good at communicating with her pokemon. She managed them with surprising precision that made Caleb jealous.

He hoped to someday reach the same level of understanding with his pokemon.

*

“Are you okay with keeping watch, Pear?” Caleb asked, once his turn came. The Quagsire made a low sound of approval, but then inclined his head expectantly.

“Do you want me to keep you company?” While Pear was great at sensing danger, he also got lonely easily. Caleb would often pair him with another pokemon if he wanted him to keep watch.

Still, today Caleb felt like he shouldn’t just delegate this to someone else. Even if he was still sleepy.

Pear visibly lit up at the prospect, his tail wagging happily.

Caleb propped himself against the tree, still covered by his sleeping bag. Pear sat next to him, looking with interest at Zahra. She was snoring lightly, the mess of her brown hair spilling out of her sleeping bag.

“Are you happy to see her too?” Caleb asked.

Pear made a low noise of approval.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She had never seen a Quagsire before you. I swear, I thought she would ask me to trade you,” Caleb admitted.

Pear tilted his head as if expressing doubt. 

“I mean, obviously, I wouldn’t trade you,” Caleb said quickly. “You were my first pokemon.”

Pear seemed to brighten at that assurance, leaning closer to Caleb to nuzzle against him. As much as Caleb loved his pokemon, he was grateful for the water-resistant sleeping bag that shielded him from Quagsire’s slippery body. 

Caleb didn’t even notice when he drifted off, trusting Pear to protect him from any dangers.

*

New Bark Town barely qualified as a town in Caleb’s eyes. It was nothing more than a village that at some point grew up just enough to be considered a town. Aside from Professor Elm’s lab there was nothing of interest there. If it wasn’t for the fact that the town had produced a pokemon champion, people probably would forget it even existed.

“Wow, and here I thought Kanto had exclusivity for tiny towns like that,” Zahra mused. “I never thought I would see a place as unassuming as Pallet Town.”

“I wonder why professors set their labs in places like this,” Caleb wondered, thinking of Professor Elm and Professor Oak.

“The rent is cheap,” Zahra pointed out, still taking in the views. “Plus, there’s plenty of space for enclosures if they want to keep pokemon outside for observation. The fact that it’s pretty quiet, probably helps too.”

Caleb nodded. The reasoning was surprisingly logical.

Professor Elm looked as if a legendary pokemon descended on his lab when he saw Zahra. He spent almost five minutes greeting her, congratulating her on all her achievements in capturing pokemon, praising her research papers, and thanking her strongly for coming to Johto.

Zahra pretty much froze during this rapid-fire of compliments. While she was always boastful about her achievements, she never quite knew how to handle genuine praise from others. 

Caleb snickered to himself, it was always entertaining to see her acting like a fish out of water whenever she got properly acknowledged.

“Do you have any specific research goals for your visit?” Professor Elm asked Zahra, as she was still gathering herself from receiving so many praises.

“I will be continuing my research into Eevees,” she said, her voice regaining the usual confidence. “It won’t be a big part of my paper, but I want to do some basic tests to see if there is any significant difference between the growth of Eevees in Johto and Kanto.”

“Oh, that’s an interesting subject. Going off the data I have there certainly seems to be a difference. Are you going to more thoroughly investigate that in the future?” professor Elm asked, visibly interested.

“Oh, yes, if the data comes positive, I plan to use that as a subject of my next paper,” Zahra admitted. She looked happy to have someone to talk with about her research projects.

“Then I wish you good luck with it. Do you have any other plans?”

“I want to visit the Ruins of Alph to see Unowns,” she admitted. “Other than that I don’t have extensive plans. I mostly want to get a feel of what Johto is like.”

Professor Elm nodded.

“If you need anything don’t hesitate to contact me, though I believe Caleb should have that covered. He’s the most hard-working and thorough individual I know.”

Caleb averted his eyes at that unexpected praise. Zahra and Professor Elm smiled at each other in response.

*

“Have you managed to get along with Shredder?” Zahra asked, as they strolled through the outskirts of New Bark Town. The forest which separated the small town form the rest of Johto region was not far from their track.

Caleb had been dreading that question. It was one of the reasons why he hadn’t talked much with Zahra.

“No,” he finally admitted. “He still hates me. If you don’t mind, I would like to give him back to you. He is clearly miserable with me,” Caleb said, his words feeling heavy.

Zahra stopped in place, clearly surprised by this admission.

“He hasn’t warmed to you?” she asked, as if to make sure.

“Not one bit,” Caleb admitted bitterly. “At least his children like me.”

He released Vee out of the pokeball into his arms to prove his point. Vee immediately called out in happiness.

However, Zahra didn’t look convinced. If anything, her expression hardened even more.

“Caleb…”

“I guess, we just weren’t compatible. I-I tried…I really did,” he felt his voice crack down. He was supposed to act more confident. It.. It wasn’t— 

“It’s not your fault, Caleb,” Zahra said, strongly. Vee jumped from Caleb’s arms, as Zahra pulled the boy into a hug. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I thought you two would get along, but I was clearly mistaken.”

Caleb wanted to say it definitely wasn’t her fault. He was the one who let Zahra down by being unable to get along with the pokemon she had given to him. He should have been better than that.

“Really, stop blaming yourself—not all pokemon and trainers get along. I thought my judgement was good, but I was clearly mistaken. I should have realized there was something off between you two way earlier,” she continued to reassure him. “Give me some time to find a new pokemon to give to you. I promise to trade back before I leave Johto.”

Caleb nodded, unable to get out a word. He still felt a bit bad about failing Zahra, but at the same time he couldn’t help being relieved by her reaction. 

He still had a lot to learn as a pokemon trainer.

*

Caleb always felt a bit weirded out by the Ruins of Alph, even though he spent a lot of time exploring them as a child, like most kids from Violet City.

All children came to Alpha Ruins hoping to discover some secret seemingly hidden inside them. The fact that nobody seemed to be able to figure out anything about those ruins just made the mystique of this place grow.

“Wow, and here I thought Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town would be the creepiest place I ever visited,” Zahra mused out loud. “Like, it’s not creepy in the same way, since there are no ghosts here, but still it’s… unsettling.”

Caleb nodded. He’d been avoiding the Ruins of Alph ever since he got old enough to realize he didn’t have to come here to prove to his friends he wasn’t a coward.

“Agreed,” he said out loud, but there was no reaction to his words. Usually, Zahra wouldn’t miss a chance to complain about things to a willing audience.

Caleb turned around to realize Zahra wasn’t there.

He was at once gripped by fear and the uncomfortable sense of familiarity. It wasn’t the first time this had happened. The Ruins of Alph had uncanny tendency to misplace people, twisting the time-space fabric. As far as Caleb had known nobody had disappeared for good, usually appearing in some other part of ruins safe and sound, if slightly lost.

Still, Caleb wasn’t very happy about being alone in the ruins. Even if he theoretically knew that nobody was harmed by the weirdness of this place, it didn’t stop the dread from twisting his guts. The quiet and oppressive interior, the countless Unowns stuck to the wall, the cold mist permeating the ruins—it all made Caleb’s hair stand on end.

Unwittingly, Caleb took a few steps back, hitting the wall with his back. The sound seemed to reverberate through the quiet ruins. He froze, afraid of what his misstep might have caused.

For a tense moment everything was quiet.

And then the Unowns moved from the nearby walls all at once.

There was at least a hundred of them, floating in the air, their single eyes turned toward him. Caleb wasn’t sure whether he should run or stay still. Unowns rarely initiated battles, but sometimes they would and Caleb never had to fight so many pokemon at once. He wasn’t sure if he stood any chance. Unowns were said to grow more powerful in a group.

Five Unowns were much more powerful than a single Unown.

Caleb had no idea just how much power the hundreds of Unowns surrounding him were holding and he wasn’t eager to find out.

Suddenly, something seemed to interrupt his thoughts. It wasn’t painful, but it was a weird, foreign feeling. As if experiencing contact through an organ that normally wasn’t used for this kind of thing.

_Ẇ̸̙̣̺͉̃̿͝i̶͉̜͊̇͗̕̕͝͝s̴͚̈́͑͊ḧ̴̡̡̠̙͍̱́̍_

The thought appeared easily in his mind, but it wasn’t his. It was like a distorted transmission filtering into his mind.

_Ḋ̶̢͈̱̪̖̄͒̉ṙ̵̢̹̬̩͈̦̯ė̷̳̱͓̼͉̹̓͋͊͘͝a̷̛̼̪̱̎͒̅̄͘͠m̶̨͉̦̽̾̈̽̈s̵̻͊̎̂̓͆͝_

It didn’t feel hostile. More like it was curious. Still, Caleb couldn’t decipher the meaning of those strange messages filtering into his mind.

_S̸͚̱̉͝h̷̘̖̲͍̲̋͐̃̿̈o̴̧͎͕͓̻͖̔̓̆͜͠͝w̵̻̟̞͎̋̐ ̴̨͈̗̣̀̄̍̓̑̈̕U̵̖͉̣̼̜͈͝s̷̹̝̬̣̺̈́̒͘_

Something shifted. Caleb had no way of stopping whatever was happening.

The image of the mysterious pokemon he saw in his youth flashed before his eyes, much more detailed than ever. It was as if someone suddenly fixed a blurry photo. Caleb wasn’t sure what was going on, but even if he wanted, he had no way to react. His tongue was tied, as if he suddenly forgot how to speak.

_Š̸͎̠̐e̵̝̩̎̒̌̍̀̿ạ̴̡̒̋̃̀̈́͛͘r̶̼̮̮̅̇͛͛̃͑c̶͚͈͙̞̈̈́ḧ̶̫͍́̈̿͝i̴̟̻̬͌̄͑n̶̨̙̜͛̇̓̌͜g̶̤̀̋̿͂̚_

Caleb realized that a few Unowns had flown close to him and lined up as if spelling out a word.

He blinked, trying to read it. Like anyone who grew up in Violet City he had a passing knowledge of the ancient alphabet, but he never learned to read it fluently. Still he pushed himself to try and decipher the individual letters.

EN— 

Suddenly, all the Unowns dispersed, flying back onto the walls and affixing themselves there. Caleb felt himself slide onto his knees as the strange mental connection was cut. It was as if the tension filling his body suddenly disappeared.

“Caleb! Caleb! Are you there?! Answer me! Caleb!”

Zahra’s panicked voice suddenly filled the corridor, but Caleb felt too mentally exhausted to answer. He still couldn’t remember how to use his tongue or any of his limbs, so he remained motionless until Zahra found him and bodily dragged out of the ruins.

*

“Iz fine,” Caleb assured Zahra for the fifth time, as she checked to make sure he didn’t have a fever.

“You were kneeling on the floor, not responding to anything when I found you! And you can’t pronounce anything correctly!” she responded, clearly agitated. “I’m not taking chances.”

“Iz nomal vo happin,” Caleb said. Temporary problems like that weren’t surprising. Unowns’ strange behaviour was more of a mystery. Truthfully, he had never heard of them acting like this, but it didn’t feel like they had bad intentions.

If anything, Caleb had a feeling they were trying to help, somehow.

“Iz late. No doctos. Home. Morning behher,” Caleb suggested.

Zahra gave him unimpressed look, as if sensing his intention to avoid visiting a doctor through this ploy, but then sighed.

“Fine, you should at least be able to rest properly, considering we are going to spend the night in your house.”

*

Caleb’s mother knew about Zahra, so she welcomed the two of them inside. Zahra seemed to expect her to share the concerns about Caleb’s health, but she clearly misjudged just how desensitized to the Ruins of Alph weirdness everyone living in Violet City were.

“Just half an hour of not responding? Don’t worry, that’s nothing. Lapis, who lives on the next street, had been unconscious for three days after he went to the Ruins of Alph alone. Then he woke up and he was like new! He even started to get along better with his parents after that incident…”

Caleb filtered out his mother’s voice, as he slowly chewed on the food. He was so mentally drained, he didn’t even feel hungry, but he knew his body needed nutrients.

It was only as he was finishing eating that his focus returned to some extent and he realized that the conversation between Zahra and his mother shifted to a different topic.

“So he didn’t call you here to help search for that Arcanine?” his mother asked, visibly surprised.

“I don’t know anything about any Arcanine,” Zahra replied, confused. “I had planned to visit Johto for quite some time to see what it’s like. Caleb promised to be my guide, but that’s about it.”

“Is that so? Maybe finally he gave up on this delusion of his.”

“Delusion?”

“Iz no deghusion!” Caleb said firmly, but also not very loudly. Annoyingly, he was butchering words, because his vocal chords still weren’t working exactly as he wanted them to.

His mother sighed, as if she had been hoping that her son was out of it enough not to argue about this issue at least this one time.

Unfortunately for her, Caleb was pretty sure he would rise from the dead just to prove her wrong about what he saw on that day.

“No canine, oter pokemuon,” he continued, stubbornly.

“Will you stop with that? There wasn’t a different pokemon. It was just an Arcanine, so—”

Caleb was about to continue arguing, but someone else spoke before him.

“I’m very sorry, I didn’t realize it was a touchy subject,” Zahra said loudly, derailing the quarrel. Caleb and his mother looked at her dumbly, as if realizing that they probably shouldn’t be arguing before a guest.

“Ah, no, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Caleb’s mom replied, clearly ashamed.

“I think I will help Caleb get upstairs, he still looks pretty weak,” Zahra offered.

Caleb didn’t protest, as while he had managed to walk back to Violet City, his sense of balance still wasn’t great. Plus, Zahra obviously hoped to escape the tense atmosphere.

Caleb fell asleep almost as soon as he hit his bed.

*

In the morning he still felt a bit disoriented, but his speech and coordination returned. Zahra looked extremely relieved at that when he joined her in the kitchen. It seemed she kept worrying about Caleb through the night, judging by the black shadows under her eyes. 

“I will never ever go to those ruins again,” Zahra proclaimed grimly, as she drank her black coffee. “And you are banned from ever going there, too.”

Caleb just nodded. While he wasn’t nearly as traumatised as Zahra from their visit, he definitely wasn’t planning to visit the Ruins of Alph anytime soon.

“Where’s mom?” he asked, as he noticed she wasn’t around.

“She had some errand to run. You just missed her,” Zahra explained.

Caleb noodded, as he sat down at the table and start to assemble a breakfast for himself.

“Say, what was this about the Arcanine yesterday?” Zahra asked carefully. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but it seemed important to you.”

Caleb sighed loudly. He didn’t want to deal with this the first thing in the morning, but then again it was his fault he hadn’t confided in Zahra earlier. She deserved to have known about it before he had irresponsibly dragged her into a family argument.

“It happened when I was a kid,” he started to talk, while making himself sandwiches. “I was playing with a ball with other kids, when I accidentally kicked it into the tall grass… and you know how it is when you are a kid. _Never go into the tall grass._ Of course, I still went there to retrieve the ball, because all other kids expected me to.”

Caleb paused to gather himself. Zahra thankfully didn’t interrupt him, patiently waiting for Caleb to continue.

“I found the ball rather quickly, but as soon as I did I saw that pokemon. It was a big and four-legged. It had an impressive mane and brown fur. It was breathtaking. I could only stand there and stare at it.” It was all the more true, now that Caleb’s memories of that pokemon were restored by Unowns. While previously Caleb struggled to describe it due to how blurred his memories became, now he felt like he lacked a vocabulary to properly paint the image that he had reclaimed.

“It escaped after a moment. I later told my parents and friends about that strange pokemon I saw, but nobody believed me. My friends thought that I was lying, and my mom still believes that what I saw on that day was an escaped Arcanine.” Caleb paused for a moment, before adding. “It wasn’t an Arcanine.”

Zahra was silent for a moment, as if waiting to see if Caleb wasn’t about to add something more. When he didn’t, deciding to start eating his breakfast instead, she made a small sigh.

“I suspected something like that,” she admitted. Caleb gave her a questioning look, his mouth too full for him to ask questions.

“People like you who choose to make capturing pokemon their mission are actually rare. Most of the people I know are like me. They stumbled into this occupation, because they had no idea what to do with themselves. I began catching pokemon for Professor Oak, when it occurred to me that I really and honestly hated being a pokemon trainer just for the sake of being the best. So I ditched being a pokemon champion and jumped into the first thing that seemed attractive. And even now, I’m one foot in the capturing business and the other in being an actual researcher. If everything goes well, I plan to follow in Professor Oak’s footsteps. But you... you are different.”

Caleb froze, unsure how to respond. He never really realized just how differently Zahra approached this job. 

“People like you who willingly chose to do this terrible, underpaid and underappreciated job… there’s just one thing that usually pushes them on—they want to find a pokemon. A specific pokemon. So they pick up a job that will give them experience and an opportunity to achieve just that.”

Caleb continued chewing, feeling a bit uncomfortable at just how fitting Zahra’s assessment was. He never really consciously thought about what he was doing in such a pragmatic way. Sure, he thought that doing this job would help him, but he always believed that the job came first.

But did it really?

If he ever managed to meet that pokemon again would he still have a reason to keep helping Professor Elm? Would he find meaning in that?

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Zahra finished, tension disappearing from her voice, as she leaned back. “You can count on me to help as long as I stay in Johto.”

Caleb couldn’t thank her enough for placing her faith in him.

*

“So this is the mysterious pokemon,” she muttered, as she looked at the old drawing Caleb gave her. The two of them moved to Caleb’s room to figure out what to do next. “I can see the problem.”

“Fortunately, after the run with those Unowns I remembered that pokemon more clearly. I should be able to draw it again,” Caleb said, feeling excited.

He took a seat at his desk and started to draw. It took him about half an hour to get the picture done. When he finished, Zahra took the picture looked at it for a long moment and then placed it side by side with the old one.

Apparently, the only difference between six-year-old and sixteen-year-old Caleb’s drawing ability was that the sixteen-year-old Caleb could colour within lines.

“I swear,” Zahra said, as if to forcibly drag Caleb out of his incoming slump. “I will teach you how to draw during the next few months. We _will_ find that pokemon.”

Caleb nodded. Guess, even with Zahra’s help, the search wouldn’t be just a walk in the park.

*

Azalea Town was their next stop.

“So pokeballs were made out of apricorns?!” Zahra asked in disbelief, looking in awe at the handmade pokeball.

“Heh, you folks from Kanto only know the mass produced stuff from Silph Co.” Kurt said, visibly happy to have an audience willing to listen to him. “Pokeballs originated here in Johto from artisans like us who hollowed apricots to make pokeballs out of them. Later big companies took that technology and mechanized the process. They can create more pokeballs more easily, but they lack the variety.”

Zahra’s eyes shined.

“Variety? What kind of pokeballs do you make?” she asked frantically.

Kurt was happy to present her with some pokeballs he had on him. Zahra didn’t waste time, pulling money out of her bag to buy all the pokeballs she was shown.

“You lack restraint,” Caleb told her once they left Kurt’s workshop.

“Maybe, but do you know what I won’t lack? Souvenirs!” she announced triumphantly. “Sweet berries! This is way better than some stupid keychains or figurines. I’m sad I’ve only now got my hands on those Moon Balls! They would have made my Clefairy research so much easier. Those little tricksters are hard to catch.”

“I thought that research didn’t go anywhere,” Caleb pointed out, remembering what Zahra said about it before.

“Only because all the existing papers on Clefairies are _trash_. People keep disputing if they come from the moon or not, instead of actually doing some interesting research on how this potential extraterrestrial pedigree makes them different from other pokemon. No, I’m not done with them by a long shot! They are what got me into research in the first place! I will be back to Clefairies as soon as I get some necessary credentials through my Eevee research!”

Caleb calmly listened to her rant, wondering if maybe her drive to learn more about Clefairies and Eevees, wasn’t in fact similar to his fascination with the mysterious pokemon.

*

Drawing turned out to be more difficult than Caleb thought. Sleeping through most of the art classes in school unexpectedly came back to bite him in the ass.

Not that Zahra was talented, but at least she knew she would need to have at least a decent drawing ability if she wanted to become a researcher, so her basics were solid.

“You should concentrate on learning how to capture the shape of things you want to draw. So for now try to quickly sketch anything that you see. Maybe try with a pokemon that would be easy to draw.”

Caleb thought on it for a moment. He had a few pokemon that fit the bill.

“Come here, Vee,” he finally decided. Eevee started bouncing almost immediately after getting out of pokeball, happy to be able to play with his trainer.

“Oh, that’s Shredder’s child, right?” Zahra asked, curiously. She carefully extended her hand to Vee, letting him slowly approach her. Vee looked at his trainer as if waiting for a cue as to whether or not he should trust this strange woman.

Caleb nodded. Eevee’s tail immediately wagged in response and he approached Zahra, clearly excited to meet a new person.

“Yes, his name is Vee,” he confirmed, watching how Zahra gently patted the pokemon.

“I see your naming sense is still terrible,” she commented. 

Caleb thought that someone who named their pokemon Ripper, Shredder, Annihilator and Arsonist, had no right to be pointing fingers when it came to naming conventions. Still, he didn’t say that out loud. He felt like it would be a very pointless discussion.

“Well, he’s certainly more friendly than his dad,” Zahra admitted.

“Yeah,” Caleb said, unable to avoid a pang of guilt he felt at that thought.

He caught Zahra looking at him encouragingly and he collected himself. He had no time to wallow in pity.

He slowly put the pencil to the paper and started to sketch Vee.

*

“Somehow I expected Johto to have different types of vending machine drinks,” Zahra muttered in disappointment as she stared at her Soda Pop.

Caleb, who was sitting next to her, slurped his Lemonade. He was exhausted from accompanying Zahra through her shopping spree. Somehow, he expected her to breeze through the Goldenrod Department Store quickly, since he knew from experience that it was extremely similar to the one in Celadon.

Apparently, he miscalculated, because the staggering amount of similarities between the two department stores just made Zahra more excited to find as many differences as possible.

Maybe he should have expected that. She came from Celadon City, after all.

While it was supposed to be the main event of today, he should probably put off the stroll through the underground tunnel for tomorrow.

*

“Wow, so this city has abandoned Team Rocket hideouts too,” Zahra said, happily, as Caleb and her sneaked into the hideout through the Goldenrod’s underground tunnel.

“Yeah, from that time when they took over Radio Tower,” Caleb admitted.

“I heard their taste in music was terrible.”

“It was,” he confirmed solemnly. “If someone told me the future pokemon champion who defeated them did it just to get back the radio channels they liked, I would believe them.”

“I would totally beat Team Rocket if my favourite radio channel was on the line,” Zahra, the ex-pokemon champion agreed.

Caleb remembered how the two of them beat up a dozen of Team Rocket grunts after they chased away Ditto, who he and Zahra were trying to catch. Somehow, it seemed that Team Rocket made their major enemies through minor inconveniences more than anything.

*

“Caleb, are you going to take part in this week’s Bug Catching Contest?!” Wade asked enthusiastically as soon as Caleb picked up his phone.

He immediately regretted it.

“I’m busy right now, so it’s not really possible,” he said quickly. It wasn’t exactly a lie, though it wasn’t a complete truth either.

“Come on, you say that you are busy every week!”

“I have a job!” Caleb pointed out exasperated. “Sorry, but I really need to hang up.”

He disconnected just in time to see Zahra give him a very curious look.

“Sooooo… what is this Bug Catching Contest you don’t plan to take part in?” she asked, her eyes shining.

*

Zahra, who probably single-handedly provided a living for a number of Safari Zone employees with her entry fees, was of course ecstatic to hear about the contest.

“You go in, catch the best pokemon you can find, get to show it off, and it’s free?! Honestly, why hasn’t anybody organized something like that in Kanto?!” she rambled, looking at Caleb in disbelief. “You must have participated dozens of times!”

Caleb scratched the back of his neck.

“Actually, no. I never did,” he admitted.

Zahra seemed to freeze at that, unable to process this revelation.

“But... why?” To Caleb’s relief Zahra didn’t sound angry or accusatory, just extremely confused. “You enjoyed it when I took you to the Safari Zone.”

“I… I just hate competitions,” Caleb admitted, feeling a bit weird. He never told that to anyone, even his mom, though he suspected she had figured it out by herself. “I don’t like being compared to other people. I don’t want to feel worse than someone else, but I also hate knowing that someone else will feel bad if I succeed.” 

He paused, looking sadly at Zahra. She was silent for a moment, visibly processing what she had just heard.

“That’s fine,” she finally said, placing her hand on Caleb’s shoulder.

“Eh?” Caleb muttered, confused by the sudden shift of atmosphere.

“I will take part in the contest in your place,” she announced, as if it was the most logical thing to do.

“Ehhhhh?”

*

Caleb wondered why Zahra enjoyed contests like these.

As she herself freely admitted, she hated being a pokemon champion. Despite the overwhelming strength she possessed in pokemon battles, she lacked passion needed for someone standing at the top.

Yet, despite that she seemed to enjoy competitions.

Caleb couldn’t understand that. What was so different between her and him?

“And bug catcher Benny successfully captures a Kakuna after a long struggle! Those hardening attacks are nothing to scoff at! Will this be enough to place Benny in the top three?!” 

The commentator’s voice kept filtering through the speakers, but Caleb didn’t pay it much attention. His eyes were glued to the screen hoping to see what Zahra was doing.

The National Park was always emptied, so that bystanders wouldn’t get in the way of the competition. Also, the smaller amount of people made some of the more cautious pokemon leave their hiding spots. After spending hours investigating it Caleb could have sworn that the National Park had no Scythers or Pinsirs, and yet the Bug-Catching Contest kept proving him wrong in that regard.

The video feed from a drone paned for a moment to Zahra, who seemed to be facing off against a Scyther. Caleb was surprised to see that she engaged it in battle, as she already possessed a really powerful one. However, he then realized that most probably she already owned all of the bug pokemon that could be found in National Park. Therefore she was probably aiming for a high score pokemon to win the competition, rather than one that she didn’t have.

Caleb was unsurprised to see her capture the Scyther with the help of her Marowak. Zahra managed to wave to the drone before the feed cut off to show a different contestant.

*

“And in 2nd place, Zahra!” the contestant announced.

To an onlooker Zahra would look elated to had earned the second place, but Caleb knew her long enough to pick on her slight annoyance. Her smile was just slightly too wide and her fingers a bit too strongly clenched on the prize she received. Caleb smiled despite himself at that.

As they left the National Park, Zahra openly let her annoyance be known.

“There’s no way that Beedrill was better than this Scyther!” she said angrily, pointing at the pokeball. “She may lack experience, comparatively speaking, but her skills are top notch. She has my stamp of approval and I spent half of my life training and researching pokemon!”

“Still, congratulations on second place! That’s really impressive!” Caleb said earnestly.

Zahra turned to him. She was still pouting a bit, but she didn’t seem to be in a very terrible mood.

“Yeah, you are right, I guess I achieved my goal,” she admitted. Suddenly, she raised the hand in which she held the pokeball with her newly caught Scyther. “Soooo… what do you want to name her?”

“Ummm… me?” Caleb asked confused.

“Yes, you.”

“Why are you asking me?”

Zahra sighed, shaking her head in exasperation.

“Because once I trade her to you, you won’t be able to change her name, you dummy!” she pointed out, as if it was the most obvious thing. “So you need to tell me now, so I can name her properly.”

“Wait,” Caleb said. The conversation seemed to have skipped several steps and he felt confused as to how Zahra even arrived at this conclusion. “Trade her?”

“I promised to trade you for Shredder, right? I wanted to not repeat my mistake this time, so I figured I would give you a freshly caught pokemon. This way it won’t have time to get attached to me, right? And Scythers are extremely useful for catching other pokemon. They are one of the few ones that can learn False Swipe. I’m honestly impressed you managed to capture so many pokemon without a pokemon which knows that move. I guess you really are a natural.”

Caleb just nodded dumbly.

“So on that note, let’s go find the nearest Pokemon Center, so we can rest and trade our pokemon!” Zahra decided, as she was already started moving. “You can figure out a name while we walk there!”

Caleb tripped over both his legs and words, as he tried to catch up to her.

*

“You could have told me earlier that you left Shredder in the Daycare Center!” Zahra complained, as the two of them sat in the shadow of a tree. Before Caleb managed to catch up to Zahra and explain to her that he wouldn’t be able to trade her just yet, they were already in the middle of Route 36.

Stopping at the crossroads, the two of them decided to cool their heads before making a decision as to what to do next.

“There’s no rush when it comes to Shredder. It would be boring if we backtracked,” Caleb argued. He didn’t want to ruin Zahra’s trip due to his problems. 

“But the faster you receive this Scyther the better! What if she gets attached to me, because I put off trading her for too long?!” Zahra argued.

“You can just store her in whatever storage system you are using right now to avoid that,” Caleb argued. “We are so close to Ecruteak… there’s little point in turning back.”

“We are also close to the Ruins of Alph and that sure doesn’t mean I want to go there,” Zahra pointed out. “Why are you arguing so hard over this?! I’m doing this for you!”

“Well, I’m doing this for you, too!” Caleb shouted.

As if to break up their quarrel the phone rang. Reluctantly, Caleb picked up his pokegear.

“This is Daycare Center!” the old lady announced happily. “I’m calling because once again we have found an egg! How delightful. Please come as soon as you can, so we can give it to you.”

Caleb rambled his thanks, feeling slightly awkward. Zahra was smiling victoriously at him, as he disconnected.

“It looks like we have no choice! We need to go back to the Daycare Center quickly, so we don’t trouble them with the egg!” she said in an exaggerated manner.

Caleb sighed as he followed her.

*

Shredder almost bit his hand as Caleb took him from the Daycare Lady. She acted as if she hadn’t noticed. Maybe it was normal for people to give troublesome pokemon to the Daycare. Caleb was certainly guilty of that.

Shredder immediately lost interest in inflicting harm on Caleb when he saw his previous owner. He immediately sprung from Caleb’s arms. Zahra easily caught him.

“Long time no see, Shredder!” she greeted him. He replied in a really cute and happy voice that Caleb didn’t even know he was capable of. “I’m sorry, it seems I ended up making you miserable. I thought you and Caleb would get along since you are both prickly…”

Caleb felt offended by this descriptor. He wasn’t prickly, just a loner. And unlike Shredder, Caleb had yet to bite anyone’s hand in a show of displeasure.

“Do you want to carry him back to the Pokemon Center?” Caleb asked.

Zahra shook her head, much to Shredder’s displeasure. However, she seemed to sense it, as she leaned slightly forward and said gently. “Listen, Shredder. I’m going to take you back, so please be patient just a little longer. Listen to Caleb for now, okay?”

Shredder looked even more doubtful, but didn’t fight when Caleb called him back to the pokeball.

*

“So where are we going next?” Caleb asked, as he and Zahra leaned over to look at the map of Johto displayed by the pokegear. 

The pokemon trade felt a bit anticlimactic considering just how much this issue weighted on Caleb, but there was little fanfare to it. Caleb let Zahra name the pokemon, since he couldn’t come up with anything, they traded and shortly after they were done with it they moved to planning the next step in their journey.

“It would be probably the best to go to Ecruteak now, and then take Route 38 so we can visit Olivine and Cianwood City,” he continued.

“I’m really looking forward to visiting Ecruteak,” Zahra admitted, clinging to her photo camera in excitement. “I know there’s probably little chance of getting a look at Tin Tower, but I’m going to explore everything I can in the Burned Tower. I heard those two towers were the nests of two legendary pokemon of this region.”

“Yes, Lugia and Ho-Oh,” Caleb admitted, recalling the legend. “But they flew off when Brass Tower burned. Nobody knows where they are now—” 

Caleb’s phone suddenly started to ring, interrupting him. He nodded apologetically at Zahra, as he picked it up.

“Caleb! You need to help me!” Dana shouted into the phone with no regard to Caleb’s eardrums. “This is an emergency!”

He slowly blinked. Somehow he had a feeling this wasn’t as much of an emergency as she was making it to be.

*

As he expected, it wasn’t.

“Thank you so much for helping me with this essay on Mareeps. You are a lifesaver,” she said. Her gratefulness didn’t really offset the fact that she dragged him through Johto for homework help. He had no idea how she could be so selfish without feeling embarrassed about it.

“Yeah, just make sure to keep your promise,” he replied tiredly. He planned to ask her for a favour anyway, so in a way her request did simplify things.

“Sure, sure, show your girlfriend around our farm,” she replied easily, already pulling out her phone to turn it on. Caleb winced.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said, feeling exhausted at the very idea. 

“Then who is she? You aren’t the type of guy to put in effort unless you really care about someone,” Dana pointed out and Caleb felt surprised that she had figured so much about him. Was she always this sharp?

“She’s my mentor,” he admitted. “She’s the one who taught me everything I know about capturing pokemon, though she’s more of a researcher nowadays.”

Dana stopped fiddling with her phone.

“Wow, really? When you mentioned someone taught you stuff, I imagined it was a cranky middle-aged guy. A beautiful girl like this can go around capturing pokemon?”

“Capturing pokemon, doing research, becoming a pokemon champion,” Caleb listed idly. “She’s just very talented, I guess.”

Dana seemed to freeze at that.

“She’s a pokemon champion?!”

“Ex-pokemon champion to be exact,” Caleb specified. He pulled his own pokegear to show a copy of commemorative photo that he had saved on the device. Zahra was smiling victoriously at it, surrounded by her pokemon.

Even though Zahra claimed to hate being a champion, Caleb could tell that she was not faking the happiness in that photo.

“How do you know someone so incredible?!” Dana asked, her voice full of disbelief.

Caleb shrugged. There wasn’t much story behind their meeting.

“I just asked Professor Elm if he knew someone who could help me improve when it came to catching pokemon, and he put me in contact with her.” He paused. “You can ask Zahra for an autograph or photo if you want, she will be probably flattered.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Caleb did help Dana take a photo of her and Zahra before they left the farm.

*

“I’ve never seen so many Miltanks before!” Zahra marveled. “Kanto barely has any. We import all our milk, apparently.”

Caleb nodded, his thoughts already directed at the next step of his journey.

“You’ve already been to Olivine, do you want to stay there or do you want to go straight to Cianwood?”

“Oh, I want to see a bit of Olivine City first,” Zahra said quickly. “Port cities are always a lot of fun. I loved exploring Vermillion City.

Caleb nodded. Maybe he was trying to rush too much through this journey.

“Want to see the Glitter Lighthouse?” he asked, as he pulled out his phone.

*

“Thanks for showing us around,” he said to Huey, as they walked down the stairs of the lighthouse.

The sailor merely smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, kid. I’m glad I could at least help you with this,” he said sincerely.

“This lighthouse is really impressive,” Zahra said, looking around. “We don’t have anything like that in Kanto!”

“Yeah, I have no idea how they manage without it. Then again, I heard that the waters near Vermillion are much easier to navigate.”

“You haven’t been there?” Zahra asked, sounding surprised.

“Hah, I wanted to, but unfortunately I get seasick if I spend too much time on a ship. So I mostly work in the harbour. There’s plenty to do on the land, especially when you need to get a lighthouse running.”

“Oh, yes, sorry. You just look like you’ve travelled a lot.”

Huey laughed loudly at that.

“Yeah, tattoos always make people think that,” he said with a wink.

Zahra also laughed.

As they were finishing their tour of lighthouse, Huey asked the question Caleb had been dreading.

“By the way, are you going to Cianwood, too?”

“Oh, yes, definitely,” Zahra assured him.

The sailor, cast a worried glance at Caleb.

“Are you sure you will be okay, kid? I remember you weren’t doing so hot on the water either.”

“I-I will be fine,” Caleb assured. Honestly, he could just fly to Cianwood if needed nowadays, but Zahra had never been there so she had to swim there first.

“If you say so…” the sailor said, visibly unconvinced. “Also, try to stay safe. I heard rumors that Team Rocket is on the move again.”

“Team Rocket? They are still operating?” Zahra asked, confused.

“Yes, rumor is that yesterday they caught a few of them trying to smuggle a shipment from Kanto.”

“Those guys don’t know when to give up,” Zahra said with a sigh. “I always run into them.”

It was true. When Caleb travelled to Kanto to train under Zahra, they had also run into Team Rocket a few times. If Zahra were to believed she had an uncanny knack for ruining their plans.

Caleb just hoped Team Rocket wouldn’t get into the way of his search for the mysterious pokemon.

*

Their trip to Cianwood was short. Caleb mostly stayed in bed, recuperating from the sea trip, while Zahra toured the city. Not that there was much to see. Cianwood wasn’t much of a tourist spot.

Caleb tried to draw while he stayed in bed, but nausea made it somehow difficult. Still, he had been steadily improving. His drawings of the mysterious pokemon didn’t look like a child’s drawings anymore, though they still lacked all the detail which he remembered during his run in with Unowns.

Nonetheless, those were way better drawings. He should show them to his acquaintances, once the trip with Zahra was done.

*

Luckily, their trip back to Olivine was aerial.

“Mory, come out,” Caleb called out his Skarmory.

The pokemon stretched her wings as she screeched into the sky. 

“I’ve been meaning to say… I know I teased you about using Noctowl for flying, but I didn’t expect you would actually move to using Skarmory,” Zahra admitted.

Caleb gave her and her Charizard a look. He wasn’t sure what she expected. 

“How do they even fly?” Zahra asked curiously. “Metal is pretty heavy. Do they use magnetism like Magnemites?”

“Oh, no, they don’t have electricity for that,” Caleb pointed out. “I guess it boils down to how the metal is distributed. They aren’t made of solid metal, it’s mostly their feathers. Which can be surprisingly light for a metal…” He paused. “Sorry, I’m probably not helping.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry. I was just curious as a research and talking out loud,” she assured him. She gently touched Mory’s feather. “I guess it just means there is still a lot to learn about pokemon.”

Caleb nodded.

*

“Dodge, Dagger!” he ordered.

The Scyther did as he was told, easily avoiding Rattata’s attack. One more slash and the battle was finished, with Rattata running away in fear.

Despite not having her for long, Caleb had to admit that Dagger was extremely talented pokemon. She was still pretty young for a Scyther, but her fighting instincts were top-notch. Not to mention, she dutifully followed orders.

She was still pretty inexperienced compared to Caleb’s other pokemon, but there was no way to close this power gap quickly in a short time.

“I’m glad you two are getting along,” Zahra said, as Caleb hid Dagger in pokeball.

“I’m glad, too,” Caleb agreed. Zahra showed a lot of consideration, even going as far as giving the pokemon a name that wasn’t as terribly over-the-top as her usual choices. “Thank you.”

“Anything for my cute disciple!” she replied with a wink.

Caleb just gave her an unamused look.

*

“Ecruteak, here I come!” Zahra announced happily.

They previously flew past Ecruteak to go help Dana, so Zahra didn’t get a chance to tour it. Still, it seemed that the wait only made her more eager to explore every nook and cranny of Burned Tower.

Caleb was slightly less excited about it, as he never really understood people’s infatuation with old buildings. He was more interested in wild pokemon that lived in the half-destroyed building. He heard rumors about Magmars appearing there from time to time and he had yet to capture one.

Unsurprisingly, outside Burned Tower they also encountered a number of shopkeepers selling souvenirs. Caleb ignored them completely, but Zahra found a tour guide and decided to join a tour. Caleb wasn’t really interested, so the two of them agreed to meet before entrance in a few hours.

He spent most of that time investigating the basement levels of Burned Tower, but mostly encountered Koffings and Rattatas.

He returned to the entrance, feeling slightly dejected. He still had some time before he was supposed to meet with Zahra, so he found a place to sit and pulled out his sketchbook. Caleb was halfway through sketching a Smeargle belonging to one of the entertainers performing under the Burned Tower, when he saw Zahra rushing to him. She seemed to be holding some sort of poster under his arm.

“Caleb! Caleb!” she shouted, sounding surprisingly urget. “I think I found it! That pokemon you’ve been searching for!”

Whatever despondency Caleb was still feeling disappeared in an instant.

*

The drawing wasn’t extremely detailed, but still better than what Caleb had drawn. There were three four-legged pokemon on it. One was yellow and seemed to command thunder, another was blue and controlled the water, and finally the third one…

A brown furred pokemon with a mask on its face surrounded by flames.

“There’s no doubt! This is the pokemon I saw!” Caleb confirmed, feeling light-headed.

After so much time, so much effort, he finally had a lead!

“I knew it! The second I saw that drawing in a museum I knew it had to be it!” 

“In a museum?” Caleb repeated confused. The euphoria of discovery, gave place to the slow realization that the poster he was looking at seemed to be a reprint of an old picture.

“Yeah, what you are looking at is one of only a few surviving depictions of three pokemon that Ho-Oh has resurrected.”

“Resurrected pokemon,” Caleb repeated. The phrase felt somehow familiar. Like something he heard a long time ago.

“When the Burned Tower, well, burned, three pokemon died in that fire. Ho-Oh resurrected them. According to legend they now embody three elements that destroyed the tower—the lightning that hit it, the fire which ravaged it, and the rain which dowsed the flames,” Zahra explained, showing off her newly-acquired knowledge.

“Wait, so what I saw was a legendary pokemon?!” Caleb asked in disbelief. He never really considered that to be an option. Sure, he believed it was a rare pokemon, but not _one-of-a-kind rare_.

“That seems like the most logical explanation,” Zahra confirmed with a nod. “You say that the pictures match, and it gives us a reason as to why you had so much trouble tracking it down. Finding a legendary pokemon is no easy task.”

“Can I even find one?” Caleb asked, suddenly feeling daunted. It was one thing to hunt for a mysterious pokemon, but another to search for a living legend.

“Of course, you can!” Zahra said strongly with so much confidence, Caleb couldn’t help feeling taken aback.

“How can you have so much confidence?!” he asked.

She leaned closer, whispering into his ear, so that other people couldn’t overhear them.

“Because I’m helping you, and I already caught a legendary pokemon once.”

*

They only continued their conversation once they hit Route 42. There were fewer trainers there, which let them discuss freely.

“Only a handful people know about that. I haven’t even told my parents. It was when I was investigating the Power Plant, trying to catch electric pokemon. I stumbled on a few wounded Team Rocket members. One of them was desperate for a cure for their pokemon and in exchange told me that they were sent there to investigate rumors of a legendary pokemon. And that they had indeed found one but were overwhelmed by it.”

She paused for a moment, as the two of them passed a fisherman. She was taking the secrecy very seriously. Caleb rarely saw her showing so much gravity about a topic.

It suddenly hit him, just how much trust she had to have in him, to share such a big secret.

“Of course, when I heard about it, I rushed to the rooftop to see that pokemon for myself. It was big, majestic… and pretty pissed off after Team Rocket disturbed it. It attacked me on sight.”

She sighed.

“I was dumb and inexperienced back then,” she admitted. “I captured it through luck more than technique. But it didn’t change the fact that when the dust settled I was holding a pokeball which contained Zapdos.”

She laughed a bit, as if she was still in disbelief that she had succeeded back then. 

“I guess it was only after catching it that it hit me just how incredible this was. I had a legendary pokemon. I could order it around. I could go to some bug catcher, challenge him and then fry his Weedle using a creature of legend. It was something that I could do. The only thing stopping me was the fact that I had some basic human decency.”

It was fascinating to hear Zahra describe her situation. Caleb couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to own a legendary pokemon. Catching a Skarmory was the most extravagant he ever got and it was only because he wanted to impress Zahra next time they met (and it worked!). Most of the pokemon he usually used where the ones he caught when he was young and which other kids from Violet City also usually owned—Wooper, Mareep, and Bellsprout.

The idea of owning a pokemon nobody else had seemed like almost too heavy of a responsibility in comparison.

“I went and talked it out with Professor Oak, since he already knew about Zapdos through my pokedex data. It took me a few weeks to actually come to a decision.”

Zahra was silent for a moment as if remembering that time.

“I let it go. I released it and then destroyed the great ball. And Zapdos… it didn’t thank me or anything. It just looked at me for a long moment. And then turned around and flew off into the sky.”

“You don’t sound happy,” Caleb noted.

“I can’t tell whether I should be happy or not about it. On some days I regret it, on others I feel an immense relief. It’s not something that has an easy answer.”

Caleb nodded. He didn’t feel like he could understand her feelings completely, but now that he was facing the prospect of catching a legendary pokemon himself he at least understood her hesitation.

“Caleb.” Zahra stopped abruptly. “There is one more secret I have. You see, I let go of Zapdos, but there was another pokemon. Another one-of-a-kind pokemon I caught.”

She paused for a moment.

“I still have that one,” she finally admitted.

*

It took Zahra a moment to find a secluded enough place. She kept talking as they walked through the forest.

“You know that I ended up having a few spats with Team Rocket? At one point, I ended up investigating their abandoned lab at Cinnabar Island. It exploded one night and then got overrun by pokemon. Barely anyone got close to it. I went there to capture some pokemon for Professor Oak, but during my search I stumbled on some notes Team Rocket left behind.”

She went silent for a moment, as she walked through the bushes blocking her path.

“I learned from it that Team Rocket had been doing experiments on pokemon there. I… I was revolted. If there were Rocket’s members still around I would have probably beaten them with my fists rather than my pokemon. But the building got truly abandoned. Most of the records got destroyed in explosion, but they at least gave me an idea of what was the main goal of the research that took place there.”

Zahra once more got silent, Caleb didn’t say anything. It must have been difficult for Zahra to talk about this. He didn’t want to make it more difficult for her with unnecessary remarks.

“They wanted to make a supreme pokemon. But not just any pokemon. They managed to obtain an embryo of a legendary pokemon, Mew. But their ambition didn’t stop at that. They wanted to make that pokemon even more powerful. So they messed with its DNA. Unsurprisingly, once they created the superpowered legendary pokemon of their dreams it rebelled against them, blew up the lab and escaped.”

“So you tracked it down?” Caleb asked, despite himself. He didn’t expect Zahra to once more pursue such a pokemon after how much anguish catching Zapdos brought her. Caleb certainly wouldn’t.

“I think I was mostly curious. No pictures survived the explosion. I guess after reading about that pokemon so much I wanted to see it for myself. And I figured where that pokemon was pretty quickly. One kid told me that he saw a strange pokemon hiding in a cave in Cerulean. So I can’t say I put any effort into tracking it. I just put two and two together.”

“Did you plan to capture it?”

“I didn’t really _plan_ to capture it. I prepared to capture it, but it wasn’t really something I planned. More than anything I wanted to see it.” She chuckled. “Unsurprisingly, it attacked me on sight. I should have figured it would hate humans after the whole evil experiment thing.”

“So you beat it up and captured it,” Caleb summed up. It was an unsurprising turn of events.

“I was mostly trying to calm it down… and okay, yes, my trainer instincts kicked in. And capturing it seemed like the best way to stop it. It’s not like I had much space to think clearly when a super powerful pokemon seemed very intent on actually harming me.”

“Does it still hate you?” Caleb asked. He was somehow reminded of Shredder.

“It hates all humans,” Zahra said easily. “But I think it tolerates me nowadays.”

“Why did you keep it?” Caleb asked.

Zahra was quiet.

“A number of reasons, and I can’t tell which ones are honest and which are just excuses.” She paused before she started to list them in an emotionless voice. “I wanted to make sure nobody else could capture and torment it. I wanted to show it that humanity isn’t as bad as it thinks. I wanted to make sure it can’t hurt anyone in its hatred. I wanted to own such a powerful pokemon. I was afraid of it and wanted to keep it contained. If it’s an artificial pokemon created by humans, shouldn’t it then stay in human hands?”

Caleb felt unsettled despite himself. He thought he knew Zahra very well and yet he never heard her voice sound so cold.

“I don’t know myself,” she admitted more quietly. Her voice was filled with so much weakness, Caleb could barely believe it was hers. “I can’t give you an answer.”

They continued to walk in silence. Distant cries of pokemon and rustling of the leaves were the only sounds filling the tense atmosphere between them now.

Finally, Zahra stopped in a small clearing. There were a few bushes shielding them from sight. Unless someone followed them, they should have no unwanted witnesses here.

Zahra pulled out a pokeball. She looked at it for a moment, as if having second thoughts, but then clicked it open.

“Come, Mewtwo.”

Caleb wasn’t sure what to expect. He had seen a drawing of Mew in a book once. He more or less knew how they looked like.

Mewtwo looked very different. It was definitely bigger. At least bigger than Caleb imagined Mew to be. It also looked much more humanoid—and knowing that it was a result of human experimentation made Caleb feel sick.

The pokemon didn’t immediately stand on the grass, instead hovering slightly above the ground before it settled on it.

The gaze that it directed at Caleb was definitely unfriendly. Not that Caleb would fault it.

“So, Caleb, meet Mewtwo! Mewtwo, this is Caleb! The one I told you about.”

He couldn’t help feeling slightly surprised at that exchange. It sounded as if Zahra had actually extensively talked to Mewtwo about him. No, what was even more surprising was the fact that Zahra kept calling it Mewtwo, Caleb would bet his arm that this was the name Team Rocket researchers came up with. Why would Zahra, who always nicknamed her pokemon, keep using that old name?

Mewtwo looked in Zahra’s direction, as if questioning her.

“I’m introducing you two, because I trust him. He’s a much nicer human than I am, you know!” Zahra said out loud, as if she read what Mewtwo meant from his unamused gaze.

“Um, hi!” Caleb said, unsure what he was supposed to be doing. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Mewtwo tilted its head, which felt somehow belittling. Not that Caleb felt offended. Rather, he was starting to wonder if Zahra didn’t actually enjoy company of people and pokemon who gave her a cold shoulder in response to her bullshit. Caleb was starting to feel that in this regard he and Mewtwo had actually something in common.

Suddenly, Mewtwo returned to its pokeball, as though it got bored of Caleb.

“It thinks you are weird,” Zahra informed him, as though Caleb missed some sort of conversation. “That’s the nicest first impression it ever gave anyone.” 

Caleb was silent for a moment, unsure how he should feel about this.

“It was so antisocial it made me feel like I actually have people skills,” Caleb finally said in a bout of honesty.

Zahra snickered at his response. It seemed the meeting was a success somehow.

*

The weather decided to be extremely _atmospheric_ for their tour of Lake of Rage.

“Wow, that’s what I call _a storm_!” Zahra shouted in delight as rain, wind and lightning fought in the sky. As if to answer that call several Gyarados were battling in the middle of the lake, firing attacks at each other. It was a small miracle that none of the attacks had hit them yet.

It was pretty normal for this place. Caleb weathered many such rainstorms when he was tagging Magikarps. Apparently, the fighting Gyarados often caused shifts in weather which resulted in volatile storms like this.

Caleb thought their visit would be cut short due to the weather, but they spent almost three hours watching the battle royale between Gyarados.

*

“Hello, professor, do you have a moment?” Caleb asked.

“Oh, hello Caleb, yes, just give me a second.” There was a sound which sounded suspiciously like a whole lot of Dunsparces, but disappeared in a moment. “Yes, what do you need?”

“I wanted to ask, do you know about the three legendary pokemon from Burned Tower?”

He and Zahra tried to gather a bit more information about them in Ecruteak, but didn’t learn much more than the legend said. Thus, Caleb decided to turn to the biggest authority on pokemon he knew.

“Oh, you mean the three beasts? Oh, yes, how could I forget one of the biggest arguments of academia—are they felines or canines? I knew a researcher who got a black eye in an argument over that,” Professor Elm explained, his voice lackadaisical.

“Their categorization aside, do you know something more than what the legends say?” Caleb said, trying to bring the conversation back on track.

“Hmmm, not that much. There are more records about Ho-oh and Lugia, since they used to stay in one place for a long time. The three legendary beasts kept roaming Johto ever since they were created, so we only possess a few accounts of people who happened to run into them.”

“Any information will be appreciated,” Caleb assured.

“Hmm, let’s see… We do know their types! You probably heard from the legend that they embody the three elements that targeted Brass Tower—and that does extend to their typing. Raikou, who is said to embody lightning, exhibits the electric powers. The embodiment of fire, Entei, commands flames. And the rain which pulled the curtains on the disaster, Suicune, controls water.”

Caleb immediately remembered, the picture from the scroll, showing the mysterious pokemon surrounded in flames. So its name was Entei. The name seemed somehow familiar and it took Caleb a second to remember. Of course, Unowns! That was what they were trying to communicate to Caleb—the name of the pokemon he was searching for.

It would be almost sweet gesture, if the whole experience wasn’t so disturbing. 

“...so the consensus is that they don’t have a fixed dwelling like most pokemon. And are said to be extremely quick,” Professor Elm continued. “There have been rumors that it’s easier to encounter those legendary pokemon in weather that matches them. So it’s best to search for Raikou in storms, but there is no scientific proof—”

“I see, thank you professor! I’m sorry, but I need to go now. Please, send me a mail with more info if you remember something else that is important,” Caleb interrupted him, knowing that if left alone, Professor Elm could talk for hours.

“Oh, yes, of course. Have a nice day!” Professor Elm said as Caleb disconnected.

It was a good idea to call him. Now, Caleb had some more info on the pokemon he was searching for. The name and the type... 

Fire type, huh? That would be tricky. Caleb’s capture team wasn’t best suited for capturing fire pokemon—half of them were weak to fire. Dagger, Bell and Mory would probably be taken out with one or two attacks. Which meant that Caleb would have to make do with relying more on the other half of his pokemon. Pear was extremely well suited to confronting fire pokemon due to his dual typing. Hopefully, would he be able to manage to stall Entei long enough to— 

Caleb froze, as he realized what he was doing.

He was actively planning to capture that pokemon.

Even though, it was less than a few days ago that Zahra warned him not to make such a decision hastily… he still couldn’t stop himself from considering how to capture Entei. 

“Am I that weak?” he asked out loud.

Vee who had been watching his trainer, made small noises, as if to cheer him up.

*

Caleb didn’t like Ice Path. It was the only route to Blackthorn City so he had already threaded it once, but he was not particularly happy about crossing it once more.

Zahra was probably even less happy considering that extreme temperatures were one of her few weaknesses. Caleb could tell that she was forcefully holding herself together, shivering despite her warm jacket.

“Hey, Caleb,” she said suddenly. He wondered if she was planning to distract herself from cold through conversation. That definitely sounded like something she would do.

“Yes?”

“So are you planning to capture that legendary pokemon?” she asked with no preamble.

Caleb almost slipped on a patch of ice.

“Wh-what? Why are you asking?” he stuttered, wondering if she somehow developed mind-reading powers. Maybe she used Mewtwo for that? He surely could imagine that.

“Oh please, of course you’ve been overthinking this ever since I talked with you a few days ago,” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. She would sound very smug, if her teeth weren’t chattering.

“I haven’t been overthinking this,” Caleb replied with a small pout.

“You can’t go to a mart without overthinking what pokeballs you should buy!” 

It was a low blow. Caleb remained quiet, not trusting himself to remain calm.

“Look, knowing you, you’ve already reached the self-depreciation stage and I’m worried about you,” Zahra said with a sigh. It seemed that both cold and worry were wearing her down. “I was the one who one-sidedly decided to share all that baggage with you. I want to make sure that you are fine.”

Caleb lowered his head, feeling shame at his unwarranted hostility. He shouldn’t have assumed Zahra’s intentions so easily.

“I’m not sure what to think,” he finally admitted. “I just wanted to meet that legendary pokemon. Prove to my mom it exists and it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination. But now… I’m not sure.”

“There’s nothing wrong with trying to capture it,” Zahra said. “That’s what pokemon trainers do. Hell, our occupation is catching pokemon. No, need to feel shame over it.”

Caleb clenched his fist.

“But isn’t this a betrayal of my dream? It… it was never supposed to get so selfish… _so calculated_ …” he said, the words getting stuck in his throat. The frustration he was feeling seemed to well inside of him.

Zahra stopped to look at him.

“That’s what dreams are,” Zahra said. “They are beautiful when they remain distant, but the closer you get the more scheming and hard work they require. Admiring Clefairies and wanting to know more about them is really cool, but then you start to actually research them and the next thing you know you’ve spent half a year living in a cave, your mother cries over the phone thinking you’ve gone crazy, and the most respected professor in the region comes to meet you to give you tips on research, because he heard rumors and got concerned.”

“I sometimes forget how much you overdo things,” Caleb teased her, feeling more relaxed after hearing her terrible description of how she got into pokemon research.

“Pot calling the kettle black,” she said with a shrug. “You travelled to another region to get tips from me and survived my inexperience when it comes to mentoring anyone. You are more stubborn than me in some aspects.”

Caleb wanted to disagree about that, but he didn’t feel like it was an argument he wanted to start right now.

“Anyway, you stuck with this dream so long, exactly because it means so much to you,” Zahra said, returning to the initial topic. “I honestly think it would be a shame to give up right now, just because reality isn’t all that glamorous. It’s still your dream, right?”

Caleb nodded despite himself. When Zahra put it like that, there was no doubt in Caleb’s mind about his answer.

“I’m definitely not giving up on it,” he said, with much more confidence in his voice.

It would have a much bigger effect, if in the next moment he hadn’t stepped on a trail of ice and slipped forward straight into a wall.

*

Blackthorn City didn’t have much going for it.

Except it had the Dragon’s Den, which was a pretty big deal.

“So you can catch Dratini here? Just like that?!” Zahra asked in disbelief.

“Not just like that. Only people who obtained the Rising Badge can,” Clair explained. 

Of course, Zahra hadn’t obtained it, but it wasn’t too difficult to convince Clair to make an exception for someone who defeated Lance, the most powerful dragon pokemon user. Clair seemed to have realized that she wouldn’t be that much of a challenge in comparison.

“Oh, please, I spent a fortune on Pokemon Safari to get mine. I wish Kanto had something like that,” Zahra said wistfully, obviously more busy with pitying herself than humoring Clair’s pride.

“This isn’t a free pick-a-Dratini spot,” Clair said, obviously losing her patience.

Caleb was starting to slightly regret asking her for help. He should have figured that she and Zahra wouldn’t mesh well.

However, it was too late to stop the inevitable fallout.

“Oh, are you going to show me the power of your discount Dratinis,” Zahra asked, visibly enthralled by a prospective fight. “Come Annihilator!”

Her Dragonite leapt out of pokeball, roaring loudly. Clair immediately called out her Dragonair in response.

Caleb just sighed loudly.

*

“Do you think I should get the other Johto badges, too?” Zahra asked, spinning the Rising Badge between her fingers, while the two of them travelled through Route 45. Caleb planned to lead Zahra through most of that route, but then instead of arriving at New Bark Town, take a shortcut through the Dark Cave to arrive at Violet City.

“If you want. I thought it would be pretty redundant, since you already beat the Elite Four, but if you want to challenge them we can plan for that,” he said, not having much opinion on it.

He obviously didn’t enjoy fighting Gym Leaders, but Zahra seemed to derive some enjoyment from challenging herself through difficult battles.

“Oh, come on, be more excited!” Zahra complained. “Your mentor is about to kick a lot of ass! A proper pupil would cheer me on!”

“I guess I am excited it is not my ass being kicked,” Caleb replied in a dry voice.

Zahra smirked at him, but suddenly her expression turned more stern.

“Caleb?” she asked, her voice suddenly reduced to whisper.

“Yes?” he replied equally quietly.

“Is Team Rocket a normal part of local landscape?”

Caleb turned just in time to see two Rockets entering Dark Cave while carrying large sacks. He narrowed his eyes.

“No.”

*

They followed the Team Rocket members quietly, but they soon discovered that Dark Cave just wasn’t a good place for stalking someone unless you were a Zubat.

Which was why they quickly defeated and captured the two grunts.

“So tell us, what is your goal. Or else I will make sure you will regret it,” Zahra demanded. She looked truly scary in that moment.

Caleb had known for a fact that she was a very kind person, even if she often struggled with actually expressing it. But in this moment, he wouldn’t blame Team Rocket members for thinking that she was capable of torture with the terrifying expression she was making.

Not that Caleb was making it any less scarier, acting like his companion threatening to cause someone harm was an everyday occurrence. They probably looked like a pretty messed up pair to an outsider.

“I will tell you,” one of Rockets said, immediately cracking under the pressure.

His companion seemed less than impressed with that, elbowing him as much as the restraint allowed him.

“Shut up, Tim, we didn’t work so hard, just so you ruin the whole plan with that big mouth of yours!” he hissed, visibly annoyed.

“But they will hurt us, Tom! I don’t want to be hurt!” Tim pointed out with ironclad logic.

Tom sighed loudly in exasperation.

“They won’t hurt us! _We_ are the bad guys!” he pointed out.

Tim gasped loudly.

“ _We are the bad guys?!_ ”

“Excuse me, but we don’t have much time for your bickering,” Zahra interrupted, her words polite, but her expression merciless. “You either start talking now, or my patience runs out and I stop being nice.”

“They don’t act like good guys,” Tim shouted in panic.

“They are bluffing,” Tom insisted, but he sounded much less certain now.

“I think you two are missing a very important thing,” Zahra pointed out, crouching so that she would be on similar eye level as her captives. “Whatever big plan your organization has, it probably won’t be worth much to you after I’m done with the two of you. So I would really, _really_ carefully consider if your loyalty is worth more than your well-being.”

Tim squeaked in fear, but his companion responded by once more putting a brave front.

“You are acting big and might just because it’s only two of us! Wait until our organization gets its hands on the three legendary beasts! Then we will be the ones laughing!” he shouted, haughtily.

He smirked victoriously for a second before his expression slowly turned despondent, as he seemed to have realized what he had actually said.

“Oh, tell us more about that,” Zahra said, her expression more serious than before.

*

Unfortunately, the two grunts didn’t know much about the plan other than the big goal they were working towards. From what Caleb and Zahra managed to gather, their job was to simply smuggle the necessary parts to a destined spot. They inspected the parts, but couldn’t really glean much about their purpose. They were mostly mechanical and neither of two pokemon capturers had much knowledge in that field.

They tried to call Professor Elm, but the reception was bad, since they were already pretty deep inside Dark Cave. Their only choice was to either move forward or backtrack. It would be faster and easier to backtrack to get out of the cave, but the steep cliffs near Blackthorn City made it nearly impossible to return to the city. They could technically try to fly, but it would be difficult to transport their captives this way. If any of them attempted to escape mid-flight it could potentially end up very badly for them. Meanwhile trying to continue going down Route 45 would result in extremely long trek before they reached any city.

As such they decided to use Dark Cave to reach Violet City, just as they originally planned. Hopefully, they would be able to quickly hand the Rockets to law enforcement to stop their plan.

Caleb had no pokemon capable of carrying people, so Zahra summoned Arsonist and Annihilator to help her carry the two grunts. As a result they walked very slowly through the cave. Their procession must have looked quite comical with Meep walking at the front to light the way with flash, Caleb right behind her to give her directions, followed by two big pokemon carrying the grunts (who had been put to sleep using Bell’s spores), and Zahra walking at the back so she could keep an eye on the grunts and quickly react if any of them woke up and tried to escape.

Unfortunately, that meant Zahra had very little light illuminating her path.

“Can’t you use Zapper for extra light?” Caleb asked when he heard a sound of someone tripping and a curse for the third time. Zapper was Zahra’s Pikachu, who had personality about as friendly as Shredder.

“Wish I had her,” Zahra replied with a sigh. “I didn’t take her since I was sure one pokemon knowing Flash would be enough for the two of us. I took Reaper instead, since I know for a fact you never carry any pokemon with Rock Smash.”

“Guilty as charged,” Caleb admitted. 

“I should probably warn you I also don’t have Deluge on me.”

“What?” Caleb asked, confused as to why Zahra would not take her Lapras with her.

“Shredder had been feeling lonely, okay? I couldn’t just send him away,” she replied, sounding defensive.

Caleb immediately dropped the topic.

“Don’t worry, I will manage,” Zahra said after the moment, probably realizing she had made things awkward. “And don’t worry too much about Team Rocket, too. If those grunts are still carrying around junk it means that whatever plan they have isn’t finished yet. We will definitely stop them!”

Caleb gave a quiet affirmative as the two of them continued to walk down the rocky path.

*

They both seemed to relish in the sun that greeted them outside Dark Cave. It broke the tension that weighted on them until now. 

Almost immediately their small break was interrupted by Caleb’s phone ringing. It was Professor Elm.

“Caleb, I’m glad I finally got through to you,” the man greeted him, sounding frantic.

“Me too, professor, sorry I was unable to pick up we have—”

“Before that, there’s something you need to know. You’ve been asking me about the legendary beasts a few days ago, so this probably concerns you. I just heard that Team Rocket broke into the Ecruteak Museum.”

“They did what?!” Caleb asked in disbelief. He put on the speakerphone mode so that Zahra could also easily hear the conversation.

“They haven’t released that information to the press, but a close associate of mine works there and she had told me that they had stolen urn with ashes that are said to be the remains of the resurrected pokemon.”

“Wait, how could there be ashes if they were resurrected?” Caleb asked, confused by the inconsistency.

“Well, there’s been a long time going debate if the pokemon that died in Brass Tower were in fact legendary at the time of their demise, or if they only became legendary upon their resurrection,” Professor Elm immediately rushed to explain. “Many scholars agree that the pokemon had been transformed during their resurrection, influenced by the events that struck Brass Tower. As such, it is entirely possible that not all of their remains had been used for that resurrection. Of course, that is no proof that the ashes in Ecruteak Museum are in fact ashes of those pokemon. My associates would probably be unhappy if they heard me say that, but there is no scientific proof that those ashes actually hold such a significance—” 

“I see, thank you professor,” Caleb said, interrupting the scientific rant. He knew Professor Elm wouldn’t hold it against him. “I think we have stumbled on Team Rocket’s plot as well. We have just captured two of their members who told us that their goal is to capture the legendary beasts. Do you have any idea how they could try to achieve that?”

“Capture all of them at once?” he repeated.

“Yeah, it sounded like they wanted to catch them all at once,” Zahra replied, leaning closer to the phone in Caleb’s hand. “We aren’t completely sure of it, but slow and steady had never been Team Rocket’s approach.”

“Certainly, they do tend to go for big flashy plans,” professor Elm agreed. “If I were to make conjecture… I feel like they might try to use the most common myth on how to encounter the legendary beasts.”

“The one about weather?” Caleb asked.

“Yes, they say that the legendary beasts seek the weather associated with them, but knowing Team Rocket they might decided to take that superstition a step further.”

“What do you mean?” Caleb asked having a bad feeling.

“After observing their ridiculous stunts, if I were to make a conjecture I would say that in order to capture the three legendary beasts, Team Rocket would recreate the disaster that led to their creation in the first place.”

Caleb felt his hairs prickle. Zahra also looked very uncomfortable at the picture the professor was painting.

“In other words, if my hypothesis is right, they plan to use those ashes to reenact the destruction of Brass Tower to draw in the legendary beasts.”

*

They didn’t waste time, leaving the Team Rocket grunts in the hands of a very confused law enforcer and bolting out of Violet City before they could be stopped for a hearing. The two grunts seemed inept enough to admit to their crimes without anyone’s help, and the two capturers had more important things to do.

“I think Professor Elm is right about their plan,” Zahra said, as the two of them stopped on Route 36 to catch a break and figure out what to do next. “The most obvious answer would be burning down some other existing towers, but it would be difficult to set a perimeter around them for capturing the legendary beasts. So my guess would be that they plan to build a hollow tower just for the purpose of burning it down. This way they could do it somewhere secluded where they can easily set up some sort of barrier to stop those legendary pokemon from escaping. You know Johto better than me. Where do you think they could set up something like that without drawing much attention?”

Caleb gathered his thoughts, while opening the map in his pokegear.

“They plan to capture all three legendary beasts, so it must be somewhere when they can reach. So we can definitely cross out Cianwood, since you can only reliably get there by sea.”

“Yeah, I think we should also cross out Route 38 and 39. I know Team Rocket managed to take over Goldenrod once without anyone noticing, but I still doubt they would be able to set anything up along that trade route so easily.”

Caleb had to agree. So many goods were transported between Ecruteak and Olivine that somebody would have realized something was off. It was true that Team Rocket used Olivine to smuggle parts they needed, but the area around that city seemed ill-suited for their needs.

“Yeah, I think we can also cross out Blackthorn City and Route 45. After all, we saw those grunts transporting the goods away from it. Not to mention those steep cliffs don’t seem like a good spot for capturing agile pokemon,” Caleb added.

Zahra nodded in agreement. Unfortunately, this still left plenty of spots.

“What about the weather conditions? If they want to recreate that event they would need a place which commonly has thunderstorms. Wouldn’t they?”

Caleb considered that. Thunderstorms happened all around Johto. The area around Olivine was famous for particularly vicious ones due to the proximity of the sea, but they already crossed out that option.

But if there was one other place infamous for its storms…

Suddenly, all the pieces of the puzzle came together for Caleb. He looked at Zahra.

“Lake of Rage… That’s where they plan to reenact the burning of the tower.”

*

The answer seemed exceedingly obvious in hindsight. 

It was a common knowledge that Team Rocket used to have a small base in Mahogany Town during the Lake of Rage incident. And if you added the common storms and the employees who seemed to slack off in their duties, it all came together.

“Of course, they got hired by the local environmental organization and then used that as an excuse to set up the equipment,” Zahra theoretized. “This way even if some tourist stumbled upon them, they would have a handy excuse.”

It certainly explained how Team Rocket could covertly prepare such a huge scale operation. 

Zahra and Caleb flew to Mahogany Town, deciding that it was a safer course of action. If the plan was in the final stages just as they suspected, the Lake of Rage was probably crawling with Team Rocket members.

“We should split out and try to reach the Lake of Rage separately,” Zahra suggested, as they prepared to leave the town. Caleb made sure he had enough healing items and pokeballs in stock.

“It would be dangerous,” Caleb pointed out.

“Yes, but it raises our chances of success. If we are right then what we need to do is make sure to create an opening so that the legendary beasts can escape from Team Rocket’s trap. In other words if at least one of us manages to get close to their camp, we succeed.”

Caleb rolled his eyes.

“Yes, and it’s still dangerous,” he pointed out.

“Oh please, I’ve been dealing with Team Rocket for years. They have nothing on me,” Zahra assured him. “I’m more worried about you, you know.”

“I will be fine!” Caleb replied immediately, with a pout. “I’m way better at not drawing attention to myself.”

“That’s the spirit!” Zahra said, giving him a thumbs up. “I will go ahead. I will try to approach the lake from the left, so you take the right. Good luck!”

It was only when Caleb started to carefully walk towards Lake of Rage that it occurred to him that Zahra might have acted so boisterously only because she didn’t want him to worry.

*

He was on a cliff close to the lake when his phone rang.

It was Zahra.

Caleb wondered why she would do something as dangerous as calling him, when it could alert Team Rocket members to his presence.

Unless…

Caleb quickly moved his head around and then he finally noticed—there was a huge group of Team Rocket members concentrated in one spot. It looked like they were fighting someone. 

He picked up and started to run in that direction.

“Hey,” she said, sounding weak. Caleb could hear the sound of battle through the phone. “I messed up.”

“I’m coming there!” Caleb said, feeling the adrenaline course through him. It would be faster if he flew there, but he needed an element of surprise if he wanted to be able to save Zahra.

“Tell me when you are close,” she muttered. Then for a moment it seemed like she pulled her phone away to shout. “Arsonist, Flamethrower! Take out those grass pokemon in the back! Annihilator, take out those Koffings before they can explode! Reaper, keep the enemies at bay!”

“I’m at the cliff to your right!” Caleb said, as he desperately ran towards it edge. The cliff wasn’t very high compared to those near Blackthorn City, but it was high enough that no Rockets would see him coming unless he got to the edge.

“Good, wait there!”

“What do you mean _wait_?! I’m coming for you!” Caleb shouted. He wasn’t sure what was happening down there, since he lost sight on the battle once he left the observation point. However, it seemed that he had gotten close enough to get his answer, as he distantly heard someone talking through a loudspeaker.

“Are you done resisting, champion?” a woman’s voice sneered. “You thought we wouldn’t be prepared for you, but you were mistaken. I’d been tracking you ever since you arrived in Johto! I won’t let you foil my plans again!”

Caleb cursed under his breath. He should have realized that Zahra was infamous enough to draw Team Rocket’s attention. He shouldn’t have brought her here. He should have known better.

“Are you there, yet?” Zahra asked quietly through the phone.

“Half a minute,” Caleb said breathlessly, as he calculated the distance.

And then his blood froze as he realized that Zahra probably knew. She was aware of her status.

She purposefully split them up so she could be the bait.

“Take care of that grump. I can’t have Team Rocket have it,” she said, her voice gentle.

Caleb finally reached the edge of cliff. As he did, he realized that the situation was truly pointless. Zahra was surrounded by almost fifty Rocket grunts all attacking her at once. Her pokemon were obviously hurt and exhausted, but she wasn’t looking at them at the moment.

The second she saw Caleb she threw a pokeball at him. It shouldn’t have been able to reach him. The cliff was too tall for a human to climb it safely. However, when it seemed that the pokeball would fall short, it suddenly picked up height as if guided by an unseen power.

Caleb caught it, confused.

Zahra smiled at him, relieved. And then her smile distorted, as an electric attack bypassed her pokemons’ defenses and hit her. She screamed for a second before her consciousness cut off and she collapsed.

Caleb could only stand frozen and watch. He was too late. He should have realized earlier what was going on. He should have— 

_”Run!”_

Caleb wasn’t sure where the voice came from, but it finally made him move. Team Rocket had noticed him. He had to run. Fortunately, some of Zahra’s pokemon were still fighting, stopping the flying pokemon that tried to pursue Caleb.

He ran.

He ran as fast as he could, regret churning deep in his guts.

*

Caleb chose to run into the nearby part of the forest—it would take him further away from the Lake of Rage for now, but this way he could lose the pursuit. It would be hard for flying pokemon to track him from the air this way.

“Bell!” he called, pulling the Weepinbell into his hands as it materialized. “Throw Stun Spore behind us!”

Bell nodded, wrapping his vines around Caleb so he could stabilize himself, as he moved onto his trainer’s back. Caleb could feel as Bell threw the spores.

He ordered Bell to repeat the attack two more times with some time lag between them. This way if there were any pokemon or people tracking him they should hopefully have been stopped.

Caleb hid Bell and then pulled Repel, spraying it behind himself. Hopefully, that would be enough for Rockets to lose track of him.

*

Caleb finally settled in a small cave, hidden from sight by thick bushes. He breathed heavily from the long run, but it seemed he had successfully avoided the pursuit.

As he finally calmed down a bit he looked down on the pokeball.

It felt extremely wrong to hold a seventh pokemon. It was one of the lessons drilled into you when you were young to carry no more than six pokemon. The official rules allowed to use no more than six pokemon, and it was hard to properly care for more pokemon.

Caleb couldn’t help feeling like he was making a newbie mistake, even if he was forced into this situation by his selfish mentor.

As if to answer his thoughts, the pokeball opened by itself. Caleb wasn’t surprised to see Mewtwo.

 _“That idiot got herself caught,”_ a sneering voice said.

It took Caleb a second to realize that somebody was talking to him and that this someone was most probably the pokemon before him.

“Y-you can talk!” he stuttered, because in all his years Caleb had never seen a talking pokemon. He knew that some psychic pokemon could communicate their emotions or intent, but actual talk was considered impossible.

_“Silence! Do you want them to find you!”_

It only now occurred to Caleb that Mewtwo’s mouth wasn’t moving. It must have been communicating using telepathy.

“So I answer you in thought?” Caleb thought in response.

 _“At least you pick up on those things quickly,”_ Mewtwo replied dismissively.

“So that’s why Zahra could communicate with you so well,” Caleb realized.

 _“I don’t make a habit of communicating with you humans. You have nothing interesting to say, anyway,”_ Mewtwo sneered.

Caleb blinked. He couldn’t help feeling like Mewtwo wasn’t really being honest here, but he wasn’t about to call it out on it. He had more pressing matters.

“Did you know that Zahra was planning to use herself as bait?” he asked.

_“Yes, although she foolishly thought she wouldn’t get caught. She planned to attack them and then retreat to create an opening for you. However, the human trash in charge seems to hold a strong grudge against her. Rather than throwing just a part of the forces at Zahra, all of those pests had been sent to bring her down.”_

Caleb wasn’t surprised to hear so much derision aimed at Team Rocket from Mewtwo. It was fully earned, after all.

“Do you know where they took her? We need to save her!” Caleb asked.

 _“We?”_ Mewtwo seemed to raise its brow at that. It was uncanningly human gesture. _“Wasn’t your goal to capture a legendary beast? If you try to save her, you won’t be able to use this situation to your advantage.”_

Caleb blinked at him.

“Fuck that,” he said eloquently. “I only need to make sure they escape, since it would be trouble if Team Rocket captured them. But I need to do that to save Zahra anyway. If the beasts escape, it should give me the opening needed to save her.”

 _“How foolish. You are going to miss your chance for this no-good human,”_ Mewtwo pointed out.

Caleb lowered his head.

“She might be no-good, but she is still my mentor. She’s in trouble, because she tried to help me. I know she wouldn’t be in this mess if she didn’t act so selfishly, but that’s just how she is. She always pushes herself for things she cares about.” He raised his head to look straight at Mewtwo. “Are you going to save her with me?”

Mewtwo crossed his arms. There was an obvious delay in its answer.

_“Hmph. I will, but only because I despise feeling like I owe her.”_

Caleb smiled despite himself. Mewtwo might have been acting prickly, but at least the two of them were on the same page.

“Then let’s go!”

*

It certainly made things simpler that he didn’t have to communicate with Mewtwo using words. The two of them could more easily approach Team Rocket’s camp this way. It still took them several hours, though.

Up closer, Caleb could finally see the fake tower Team Rocket had constructed. It was obvious at the first glance it was nothing but slapdash construction—built for the sole purpose of being burned down.

They managed to sneak close to one of the outposts. They deliberately chose one that was furthest away from the fake tower, hoping that the distance would hinder the Rockets in noticing and fixing the opening they were planning to create.

_“It seems this is one of the cornerstones of their pitiful barrier.”_

“Yeah, now we must wait until they start the operation. If they figure out too early that something is wrong with the barrier, we won’t create the opening we need,” Caleb replied in his mind.

 _“I’m well aware, human,”_ Mewtwo replied scornfully. _”You don’t need to state the obvious.”_

“Sorry, I’m just nervous. I’m worried about Zahra.”

 _“Worry not. She wouldn’t get killed by something so pedestrian,”_ Mewtwo pointed out, as if it was a matter of fact that Zahra could only be killed by some extraordinary circumstances. Not that Caleb disagreed, but it felt a bit weird to hear a pokemon share his sentiment.

“By the way, if we go like that Team Rocket may realize you are with Zahra. She obviously wanted to protect you from that,” Caleb communicated with his mind, thinking of the big fight Zahra had against Team Rocket earlier. Even when she had her back to the wall she didn’t use Mewtwo.

It was obvious why she would do that. Mewtwo would be safe as long as Team Rocket didn’t know its whereabouts. The second they realized there was a link between Caleb and Zahra, it would put both of them in danger. Even splitting up wouldn’t help—and Caleb had a nagging feeling neither of them really wanted to go their separate paths. As dismissive as Mewtwo had been of humanity as a whole, it was hard not to notice that Zahra was the only person it referred to by name.

“Are you still going to help her?” Caleb asked. “It may put both of you in danger.”

Mewtwo narrowed its eyes.

_“I’m not going to spend my life in fear of those pests! If they won’t leave me alone then all I need to do is crush them like the insignificant bugs they are.”_

Somehow in that moment Caleb could perfectly imagine Zahra finding Mewtwo’s _destroy those pests_ schtick unironically endearing.

_“Besides, she is not the boss of me. I have no reason to go along with her selfishness.”_

Caleb had a strong feeling they were both very much going along with Zahra’s selfishness right now, but he stayed quiet. He’d rather not anger Mewtwo.

The two of them continued to wait quietly.

*

Caleb was very grateful that his job as a capturer taught him how to remain still for several hours while waiting for a pokemon. None of the grunts noticed him. Caleb waited, watching how the light of the day made way for dusk and then night.

It was well past midnight when things started to move. A small drizzle turned into a heavy rain, forcing Caleb to very quietly cover himself with a raincoat. Fortunately, it was colored so that it could conceal the wearer. Mewtwo merely extended a shield of psychic energy above itself that acted like an umbrella.

Caleb knew better than to ask if he could also get such an energy shield for protection from the elements.

As the storm grew stronger, Caleb used his binoculars to observe the fake tower. There were small discharges of lightning happening, but nothing big enough to cause fire. There was also no guarantee that the lightning would hit the tower, even if it was the highest point in the vicinity at this point.

Caleb wondered what they should do then. Wait for a few days? Or risk breaking into the camp anyway?

However, it quickly turned out that he wouldn’t need to figure out an alternate plan, because a few minutes later as the rain grew so heavy it was beginning to be hard to see the tower, a huge bolt of lightning split the sky.

Caleb had to close his eyes, it was so bright. 

When he opened them the tower was on fire. Caleb suspected that Team Rocket put some easily flammable materials into it to ensure that their fake tower would burn properly, but even then it was an incredible sight.

The fire seemed to literally consume the tower, licking the wood and swallowing whole stories, as if trying to satisfy its hunger. Caleb couldn’t avert his attention from the spectacle.

Even when Caleb knew that everything was fake—that the tower was hollow and everything was nothing more than malicious setup for the sake of capturing legendary pokemon—just for a moment he felt like he was in fact in the past, observing the fire which consumed the real Brass Tower. 

And then he heard the roar.

It was singular at first, but then another voice joined it, and finally the third one finished the awe inspiring symphony.

Caleb quickly moved his binoculars, searching for the source of those roars. He knew it. He remembered that roar. It was buried deep down within his memories, but he would never mistake it for anything else.

As he thought that, Caleb saw it just for a second. The flash of brown fur and cloud-like tail.

It was immediately gone, but it filled Caleb with a strange sense of satisfaction.

Even if he couldn’t face that pokemon today, even if he walked out of this adventure with no proof of its existence it would be okay.

Because he now knew beyond doubt that the dream he kept chasing after was real.

There was no signal. He and Mewtwo simply rose up and charged at the grunts at once.

*

The battle was finished in a second, as Mewtwo slammed the Team Rocket members into the ground with its psychic power before they could even reach their pokeballs. Caleb used that moment to summon Dagger and order him to slash the device to pieces.

The psychic barrier that had started to form around the device dispatiated. There was now an opening which the legendary pokemon could use to escape.

 _“Let’s go!”_ Mewtwo called.

Caleb was going to ask what they were going to do with the grunts, but then he noticed that apparently they both got knocked out. It was somehow amusing that despite its threats Mewtwo spared their lives, as if knowing that Zahra would disapprove of needless bloodshed.

Caleb should put a good word in for Mewtwo once they were done.

“Mory, carry me toward that tower!” Caleb said, not wasting time. Riding his Skarmory, he flew into the air, followed by Mewtwo. Caleb once more used his binoculars to try and figure out their situation. Right under the tower he saw the three legendary beasts fighting Team Rocket. It seemed that so far the Rockets were on the losing side. They probably planned to keep those beasts contained within the barrier to tire them out, but now that plan wouldn’t work.

_“Zahra’s probably confined in one of those tents!”_

Caleb moved his binoculars and noticed several big tents placed a distance away from the tower. Team Rocket probably wanted to make sure that the debris falling from the tower wouldn’t reach them.

Caleb quickly steered Mory in that direction. Mewtwo practically shot forward like a bullet, easily bypassing the Skarmory. When Caleb finally landed, Mewtwo had already taken care of the guards, incapacitating them like the grunts guarding the barrier.

Caleb quickly entered the first tent. The lights were off inside so it was pretty dark and Caleb needed a moment to adjust his eyesight. Luck was on his side, becauseZahra was there. She was tied to a chair, her body slumped forward. She seemed to be unconscious and there were bruises suggesting she had been beaten up, but at least she didn’t seem to have any serious wounds.

He removed the restraints put on her, making sure to not hurt Zahra more. While he was doing that, Mewtwo hovered near the tent’s entrance to make sure Team Rocket members wouldn’t ambush them.

As Caleb finished cutting through the bounds, Zahra was freed, but merely fell forward like a puppet. Caleb barely managed to secure her.

“Zahra, Zahra,” he muttered, shaking her gently. He needed her to wake up, if he wanted both of them to escape safely. Even with Mewtwo’s help it would be extremely difficult to transport an unconscious person. 

It took him almost five very nerve wracking minutes of gently urging her, but Zahra finally woke up.

“Oh, wow, nice to see a friendly face,” she muttered, sounding slightly weak.

Caleb wordlessly passed her Fresh Water and some berries that he hoped would give her strength. Zahra consumed them quickly. Just as expected, Team Rocket must have not fed her.

“How are you feeling?” he asked when she finished eating. He also returned Mewtwo’s pokeball to her, not wanting to keep it on himself any longer than strictly necessary.

“Pretty annoyed,” she muttered, crushing the empty plastic bottle in her hand. “The dumb women who arranged this whole capture has quite a grudge against me. She spent almost two hours telling me how inferior I was. I was almost grateful I blacked out from exhaustion.”

Caleb sighed. He could always count on Zahra to dismiss just how much danger she was in.

“More importantly, why are you here, Mewtwo? If someone sees you it will be bad,” she said, more concerned for the safety of her pokemon.

Mewtwo scoffed mentally at her.

 _“You think that a failure who couldn’t even protect herself has a right to order me around?!”_ it asked haughtily.

“I kept my word to keep you safe. I never promised you to keep both of us safe,” she replied easily. It was obvious she was prepared for that argument. Caleb would go as far as to say that she specifically made sure that this loophole existed when she gave Mewtwo her word.

Even if it was stressful, he couldn’t help feeling glad that both of them were including him into this argument. It would be extremely confusing if they decided to argue exclusively within their minds.

 _“Fool. You think I would settle just for that! I allowed you to do as you please, because you acted all confident about being able to defeat those pests without my help!”_ It paused, as if to give weight to its next words. _“However, you failed me! You let those vermin defeat you!”_

Zahra sighed deeply and closed her eyes. For the first time since she regained her consciousness she let all her hurt and exhaustion show.

“Guess I did. Sorry, Mewtwo… Sorry, Caleb. I’m such a disappointment both as a trainer and mentor, aren’t I?” she muttered self-deprecatingly. 

“That’s not true! I mean, you definitely should apologize for worrying the two of us so much! But we don’t hate you!” Caleb said. He almost expected Mewtwo to protest for being included in that passionate speech, but the pokemon remained silent.

Zahra’s eyes seemed to glisten in the darkness of the tent.

“Really?” she asked weakly.

Caleb made sure to be gentle as he pulled her from the chair into a hug. She leaned on him slightly, as if she couldn’t quite support her weight yet.

“You can be extremely annoying, and keep shouldering big secrets by yourself, and are stupidly reckless, but you are my mentor. You can’t just put yourself in danger like that when I still haven’t caught up to you!” he muttered, feeling all the anxiety he experienced through the night spill out as tears. “You are the only person who could pull all those crazy stunts like catching a legendary pokemon, or stopping Team Rocket all the time, or becoming a pokemon champion when your heart wasn’t in it, or making Mewtwo acknowledge you even though it hates mankind, or agreeing to train me even though you clearly had no idea how to do it…”

Caleb had to stop, because it was beginning to be hard to talk when he was crying so much.

“I never have any idea what I’m doing! I’m such a mess!” Zahra admitted, also clinging to him. “I keep doing things on a whim and then it always somehow backfires… I always thought you deserved a better mentor than me! And Mewtwo deserved a better trainer… someone who could actually show him that humanity isn’t a constant dumpster fire…”

_“I disagree. Having to spend time with someone who would actively try to prove to me that humankind is redeemable would be insufferable. I much more enjoy being proven right by observing a prime example of human hubris at work.”_

Zahra laughed through tears at that.

“Wow, that’s the nicest thing you ever told me,” she said, clearly amused. “Thank you.”

Mewtwo turned around with a swish of its tail, as if annoyed by the thanks.

“What’s the situation?” Zahra asked after a moment, as she finally let go of Caleb and started to clean her face with a towel she took from on of the tables.

 _“We made a hole in the barrier, but it seems that those eyesores proved at least competent enough to stall those three beasts. None of them had been captured yet, but they have no chance to escape, either,”_ Mewtwo summarized. It seemed it kept monitoring the situation, while Zahra and Caleb were busy having an emotional reunion.

“We should hurry, somebody probably already noticed you breached the barrier. If we are too slow they may find a substitute device and close off that opening.” She got silent for a second as she considered their options, before placing a hand of Caleb’s shoulder. “You need to hurry.”

“But what about you?” Caleb muttered as he looked at Zahra. “You are still in bad shape and…”

But she brushed off his concern with practiced ease.

“I’m not trying to act tough. I need some time to find my pokemon. I heard those Rockets mentioning that they left them in one of the other tents. I won’t be able to help you much unless I get them back. That’s why you need to go ahead and help the legendary beasts escape before it’s too late!” Zahra explained, gently, but sternly.

“But…” Caleb still wanted to argue. It felt wrong to leave her behind after how much effort and worry he put into finding her. However, she seemed to have seen through him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be alone. Mewtwo will protect me if anything happens. So don’t worry and do what you have to do.”

Caleb nodded. It was impossible to argue when Zahra put it like that, however, he wasn’t going to just obediently leave.

“Here,” he said, pushing a handful of medical items into her hands. “Use that to heal your pokemon.”

“Wait, those are revives and full restores! Did you just give me all your strongest healing items?!”

He did, but Caleb wasn’t about to hear her protests. He left the tent and flew into the air using Mory, before she could stop him.

*

He considered his strategy as he slowly circled above the battlefield. Water seemed to have put out most of the fire, leaving only a half collapsed pile of wood. That left Team Rocket with the limited lighting they had prepared beforehand, which was all focused on the legendary beasts. Due to that, nobody seemed to have noticed Caleb and his pokemon in the sky. 

It seemed that at least half of Team Rocket members were out of pokemon judging by how many of them seemed to do nothing more than stand on the sidelines. Not that the legendary beasts were doing that well. They were visibly hunching, and there was a sense of tiredness to their movements.

Caleb had to act now.

“Bell! Stun Spore!” he ordered. It would be the best to prevent as many grunts as possible from reaching him first, so Caleb started with spreading the paralyzing spores onto Rockets. He knew he was risking some of those spores falling on legendary beasts as well, but he didn’t have time to play it safe. He knew that he would be quickly noticed after this, so he descended on the battlefield as soon as the spores cleared up. 

“Razor Leaf!” he ordered, as he jumped off Mory. He landed with his back to the legendary beasts, hoping that this would send a message that he was not an enemy. “Mory, Steel Wing!”

As his two pokemon created an opening, he called Vee. He knew that unlike Zahra, he couldn’t command five pokemon at once. Three was his limit.

“Vee, use Bite,” he said, directing his pokemon toward a charging Koffing. It seemed it had already been weakened, as it fell unconscious after this attack. Vee growled loudly as if daring other pokemon to come closer.

It seemed that Caleb’s appearance was unexpected enough to create chaos in Team Rocket’s ranks. Before their leader managed to organize them again, Caleb defeated at least a few more Rockets.

Still, he was terribly disadvantaged. If the Rockets managed to synchronize their attacks he wouldn’t last long.

“Run!” he shouted to the beasts, when Bell and Vee managed to simultaneously take out their opponents, giving Caleb a small reprieve. The legendary beasts hadn’t moved ever since he had appeared, instead taking out any pokemon that tried to circle around Caleb and attack them directly. He couldn’t turn around to look at them properly, but he could still feel their gazes settle heavily on him. They didn’t trust him yet, observing him closely and judgmentally. “There’s a small spot to the west through which you can escape! But I don’t know how long it will last! Please, hurry! I will hold them off!”

There was a heavy silence behind him, as Caleb was forced to once more focus his full attention to the battlefield before his eyes. His moment of inattentiveness already cost Vee some health, as without his trainer’s support he failed to notice an attack from Ekans.

Caleb quickly ordered Mory to slam into Ekans to prevent it from doing a follow up attack, but that left Bell with no support and the poor Weepinbell got blasted with Supersonic from several Zubats. As he called his pokemon back to protect it, he heard a swish of air. 

For a second he saw a glimpse of that nostalgic brown fur, but it was immediately gone.

He didn’t have to turn to know that all of the legendary beasts had escaped and were probably going toward the opening in the barrier.

A strange mix of joy and sadness rose within Caleb. He was happy, he had fulfilled his purpose. He couldn’t ask for more in those circumstances after all.

And yet, a strange sort of bitterness seemed to settle in his stomach. He had come so close to his goal. He had finally seen the pokemon he had been chasing, even if just for a second, but he had to let it go.

“How dare you, you impudent child?!” the leader of Rockets shouted, coming to the front. She was a tall woman in a long dress, with some of her red hair tied in a bun. It seemed she had ordered most of her forces to follow after the retreating pokemon, but her stance told Caleb that she meant to pay him back for ruining her plan.

Caleb normally disliked fights, but for the first time he could feel himself yearning for the win from the bottom of his heart. The bitter feeling in his stomach was pushing him forward. He couldn’t let his dream end here. He needed to defeat the enemy standing in his way, so he could move forward. For the first time he truly understood that.

“You dared to get in the way of none other than the Executive Este! I will make you taste despair, child!” she threatened, as she sent out her Granbull.

Caleb noticed other Rockets backing out of the fight. It seemed that this was supposed to be an honest one on one battle. Caleb called back Mory, leaving only Vee on the battlefield.

“You will be the one tasting defeat!” he shouted back, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction from the pre-battle trash talk. It was as if he was discovering the joy of fighting pokemon battles for the first time. “We will crush them Vee! Sand-Attack!”

It wasn’t the most impressive attack, but Granbull visibly hadn’t expected it, which let Vee avoid the bite attack.

“Quick attack!” Caleb shouted. Vee, despite having barely regained the footing after his evasive maneuver, jumped forward with a speed that made him look like nothing more than a blur. The attack seemed to stagger Granbull for a second, but it quickly regained itself.

“Charm!” Este ordered with a sly smile. Caleb watched in dread as Granbull suddenly moved in place, as if performing a strange dance.

“Don’t look, Vee!”

Unfortunately, it was too late. Caleb could tell by his pokemon’s posture that the attack landed.

“Get yourself together Vee! We need to win this!” he shouted, feeling desperation grow within him. He knew he should call back Vee, but to some extent he still hoped to be able to fight Entei and so he wanted to preserve the strength of the pokemon he would need the most for that.

Unfortunately, his commands went unanswered, as Vee let himself get battered by the next attack.

Caleb gritted his teeth, as he pleaded.

“Please… Vee! Baton Pass!”

For a second he dreaded that even this instruction would be ignored, but as Granbull charged for the next attack, Vee suddenly disappeared from where he stood. Granbull bit onto thin air, visibly confused. A second later, Dagger manifested above Granbull and made a downward slash.

Granbull screeched in pain, as Scyther backed away.

“How dare you! Granbull, Take Down!”

“Dagger, Agility! Don’t let it hit you!” Caleb shouted. Dagger was still untrained compared to Caleb’s other pokemon and pretty young to boot. She would probably get knocked out just by one attack from Granbull. Still, Caleb wanted to believe in her.

Dagger just barely dodged the incoming attack. 

“Wing Attack!” Caleb ordered, hoping this attack would be enough to knock out Granbull, but he had underestimated just how resilient the enemy was. Despite being battered by the attack, Granbull managed to remain standing. It shook its head with a growl before making a big pounce right at the Scyther.

Dagger made a weak sound as it was squashed against the ground. Caleb quickly recalled it. He had misjudged the situation. He knew that a Rocket Executive had to be powerful, but he didn’t expect someone that strong. The difference in strength between them was clear.

Still, he wasn’t going to give up.

“Go, Bell! Razor Leaf!” he ordered. The Weepinbell was a bit battered from previous fight, but it aimed perfectly at the Granbull.

Finally, the enemy pokemon fell. He shouted, feeling excitement!

“Yes, we did it Be—” 

The belated realization that Este wasn’t looking at her defeated pokemon, but rather was grinning at Caleb, was the only warning he got before something painfully constricted around his body. He frantically tried to escape, as something long and smooth coiled around him.

He screamed, but it was a mistake. When Arbok’s head finally came into his view, its giant body seemed to squeeze all the air out of Caleb. It was hard to breath now. His hands were free, but he could only ineffectively try to pry the pokemon off him. He couldn’t reach his belt or say anything loud enough to be heard by Bell.

“Run… don’t…”

His effort was in vain. Bell was so distraught by seeing his trainer in danger that he failed to notice a Growlithe which burned it from behind. Caleb could only watch in pain, as his pokemon fell down unconscious. Caleb couldn’t even reach his pokeballs to call him back or to use other pokemon.

“See, this is what happens when you challenge Team Rocket Executive, you fool!” Este said happily, coming closer to immobilized Caleb. “Teach him a lesson!”

Arbok strengthened its hold on him, making Caleb gasp in pain. He felt as if the pokemon was trying to squeeze the life out of him. He started to thrash in a panicked attempt to escape, but he didn’t have the strength necessary to even slow down Arbok. Suddenly, a strong pain shot through him.

Caleb didn’t know he was still capable of it, but he screamed as loudly as he could. Este laughed at it, ordering Arbok to loosen a bit. It seemed that she wanted to drag out Caleb’s suffering.

There was now a throbbing pain in Caleb’s side. It hurt a lot, but he didn’t know what got damaged.

Through the haze of pain, Caleb realized he made a novice mistake, expecting Team Rocket not to play dirty. He could feel tears of pain and frustration streak down his face. How was he supposed to capture a legendary pokemon when he had committed such a basic mistake? He couldn’t protect himself or his pokemon. He— 

“That’s quite enough of your fooling around,” a familiar voice announced.

Zahra gracefully landed on the ground, while Arsonist swooped down taking out some of the Rocket’s pokemon with a well aimed Flamethrower.

“You—” Este muttered with clear loating.

“Now, I should be the one getting angry here, you’ve been picking on my cute apprentice while I was away!” Zahra said, her voice losing the light-hearted tone halfway through to morph into something that was definitely a threat.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Este announced, sounding annoyingly in control. “I’m holding your little pet hostile, so surrender peacefully or—” 

Caleb didn’t hear the rest of the words, because Arbok screeched in pain right into his ear. He tried to shield his ears, but it proved impossible, because the pokemon suddenly went limp and all that weight seemed very intent on pushing Caleb down onto the ground.

Fortunately, someone was there to gently steady him.

“Ripper,” Caleb muttered in relief, as he realized that the Scyther was gently supporting him, making sure not to hurt Caleb with his sharp scythes.

He was happy to see that Zahra was a few steps ahead of their enemies. She was now standing triumphantly as in the background some of the cinders remaining after the fake tower lit up due to Charizard’s flame attack. 

The glow from the relit fire distorted Zahra’s silhouette to make her look even more dangerous than usual.

“It’s just like you to think that you can only win against me with an unfair advantage,” Zahra sneered. “I guess all those defeats at my hand really hurt your self-esteem.”

Este looked much more red as she pointed angrily at Zahra.

“You still lost against us!” she shouted, pathetically clinging to her sole victory.

Zahra didn’t seem phased.

“Well, yeah, I guess even trash can have some worth if it stacks up. I shouldn’t have held back in that fight. That’s totally on me,” she announced. “So no more holding back! I will make sure to stomp you into the ground with all I’ve got!”

As if waiting for the cue Mewtwo suddenly descended on the ground, pushing several Rockets who were standing the nearest onto the ground with its psychic powers.

The grunts seemed to shout in fear, seeing the unknown pokemon, while Este paled.

“Is that—” She shook her head. “No, there’s no way… It can’t be that you…”

Zahra smiled widely.

“Oh, yes, I succeeded where you idiots failed. Let’s kick some Rocket ass, Mewtwo!”

Mewtwo didn’t have to be told twice, charging forward with a very unsettling expression. Zahra released Annihilator and Shredder, ordering all her pokemon to attack.

Chaos ensued, which allowed her to get closer to Caleb.

“Are you going?” she asked. Somehow, he understood instantly what she meant.

“I… half of my pokemon are hurt… and my chest hurts. And it’s been so long since the legendary beasts escaped, there’s no way…”

Zahra clicked her tongue, interrupting him.

“I didn’t ask you for excuses. _I asked if you are going?_ ” she repeated looking straight at him.

Caleb always struggled to believe in himself, but having someone else believe in him despite everything that just happened made him feel like he could do it. He nodded.

“I’m going,” he said quietly.

He called Mory and despite the pain in his chest, got onto him.

“I’m going,” he said with more power as he urged Skarmory to fly.

“That’s more like it!” Zahra shouted, then she suddenly threw a pokeball at him. “Ripper, go with him!”

Caleb barely caught it, calling the pokemon back. He nodded in thanks, as Zahra waved at him, before returning to suppressing whatever remained of Team Rocket. As Caleb steered Mory toward the opening in barrier which the three legendary beasts were supposed to escape through, he was no longer looking back.

*

It was by no means a short trip, as the hole in the barrier was on the opposite side of the lake from the fake tower. It was a deliberate move. They knew the security had to be laxer further from the main forces and it would be more difficult to transport materials needed to repair the device.

When Caleb slowed down to look from above, he noticed that there were new signs of destruction. He didn’t have time to stop, but the smell of fresh fire suggested the beasts hadn’t passed through here too long ago. 

He urged Mory forward. Caleb had no idea where to look, but he couldn’t give up yet.

He could see that the night was slowly fading away. The sun had yet to rise, but the grayness of retreating night made it easier for Caleb to look for Entei.

And then he saw it.

Entei was standing on a hill as if waiting for something. For a second it felt like their eyes meet.

As Caleb blinked, he realized that Entei was running now.

“Wait!” she shouted, extending his hand, as if hoping to physically stop the pokemon. “Chase after it, Mory!” 

Skarmory screeched, as if answering the order and dived forward. Caleb leaned down to cause less resistance. The movement made the pain in his side flare up, but he ignored it.

He was so close!

They got low enough that Mory had to now avoid the trees, but they seemed to be catching up to Entei. Caleb suspected that the damage Team Rocket inflicted made Entei slower than it usually was.

They were now in a deeper part of the forest, unfamiliar to Caleb. He kept steering Mory to avoid any obstacles and slowly but surely they were shortening the distance. Finally, when Entei slowed down a bit to make a sharp turn Caleb felt that his chance came.

He jumped off Mory’s back as he reached toward the pokemon.

“Enteeeeeeeiii!” 

As Entei moved just slightly outside his reach, Caleb realized this was probably a very stupid idea right before he hit the ground and the pain in his side flared up viciously.

He spent the next moment curled on the ground in pain, unable to move. Finally, it settled down enough that he slowly raised his head.

Caleb expected Entei to be long gone, which was why he almost jumped when he realized that the pokemon was standing just a slight distance away from him, looking at him with an unreadable expression. Up close it looked exactly as beautiful as Caleb remembered it—the cloud-like tail moving with each small movement of the wind, the mask which made the pokemon’s expression unreadable, the impressive mane. It was so nostalgic, he wanted to cry.

Caleb didn’t understand why he was granted this miracle, but he wasn’t about to question it. He pushed himself to stand up despite the fact that each movement was accompanied by pain.

He clenched his hand around one of his pokeballs, as he finally managed to stand straight. He stretched his hand in a gesture trainers usually used when issuing a challenge.

“I challenge you to a battle!” he proclaimed.

He hadn’t planned for it, but it seemed like a natural thing to do. He was a trainer and before him was a pokemon.

He had to prove his worth through the battle if he wished to be acknowledged.

Caleb almost expected Entei to turn around and run off. If it did that, Caleb would be unable to catch up this time. They were in a small clearing, but not far from here was a very dense part of the forest. Caleb would be unable to pursue Entei from the air if it escaped here.

However, Entei only seemed to growl majestically in answer, as if saying it accepted the challenge. 

“Meep!” Caleb shouted. He knew that Meep probably wouldn’t be able to last long. Because he kept her from evolving her defense wasn’t good. Still, with Bell down there was something only she could do. “Thunder Wave!”

Caleb couldn’t help but make a disappointed sound as Entei avoided the discharge. It immediately countered with Flamethrower, which for a moment made Mareep disappear in a stream of fire.

Caleb shouted, afraid of what he would see. He had given all the revival items he had to Zahra. If any of his pokemon fainted, he wouldn’t be able to use them in this fight.

He wouldn’t get any redos for this.

Despite the raging inferno a defiant baa resounded through the clearing. As the fire died out, Meep appeared out of the flames looking visibly signed, but still standing.

“I believe in you, Meep! Thunder Wave!” Caleb ordered once more. This time Meep charged forward, making sure that Entei wouldn’t be able to escape the attack. The legendary beast still attempted to jump to the side to avoid the attack and counter, but it had underestimated just how fast Caleb’s Mareep was.

This time the discharge hit true, leaving Entei paralyzed. Caleb hoped that paralysis would keep Entei immobile at least long enough for Meep to get another attack in, but he was too optimistic. Despite having difficulties with moving, Entei breathed fire at Mareep.

This time Meep cried out in distress and Caleb didn’t even wait for the attack to finish as he called her back.

He was now down to three pokemon. Pear, Vee and Ripper.

“Go, Pear!” Caleb chose him, hoping to further weaken Entei. Due to his double type, Entei’s fire attacks would do much less damage to Pear. “Earthquake!”

However, their battle plan encountered problems almost immediately, because Entei seemed to recognize that Quagsires were pretty fire-resistant, so instead it made a direct attack. It rushed towards the Quagsire, who was still preparing his attack and then stomped onto him hard.

Entei quickly jumped back, but this precaution turned out to be unnecessary, because the attack seemed to have flinched Pear. Despite Caleb’s pleas, Entei easily managed to bite the stunned Quagsire, before he collected himself.

Pear was the most tanky pokemon on Caleb’s team at the moment, but even he was in bad shape after receiving two attacks from the legendary beast.

“Hang in there, Pear!” Caleb asked, desperately. “Just one Earthquake! We need just one!”

Quagsire made a gurgling sound and looked straight at Entei, as he pounded his tail on the ground in an obvious challenge. Entei made a small angry sound before pouncing on Pear.

Pear seemed to be waiting for that, as it made a low dive right under the jumping Entei. As the Quagsire was falling he placed his hands on the ground activating his attack. Entei who had only just landed and had yet to regain its balance could not avoid the attack. It wobbled on its legs, as the attack hit it.

Caleb wondered if it was safe to execute one more attack. He didn’t want to make Entei faint. He wanted to prove himself by capturing him. That was why he wanted to make sure the next attack wouldn’t be too strong. Pear looked at him waiting for orders.

However, Caleb’s hesitation quickly turned against him, as Entei regained itself much quicker than he expected and once more stomped onto Pear. Caleb could only watch, full of shame, as his pokemon fell onto the ground.

Two to go.

“Ripper, I’m counting on you!” he shouted, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt. “False Swipe!”

Scyther didn’t waste time. Caleb could feel the difference in experience between him and Dagger. With no wasted movement, Ripper closed the distance between him and Entei and slashed through him. Entei seemed almost surprised at the fact that it had been damaged. Confusion seemed to flash through its features, as it turned around to attack Scyther with fire.

Ripper dodged the attack, but Caleb had no illusion that no matter how powerful Ripper was, he wouldn’t survive even one fire attack from Entei. 

“Once more, Ripper! False Swipe!” Caleb ordered. As someone who spent a long time capturing pokemon he could tell that Entei hadn’t hit his lowest point yet. It was always a fine balancing act to exhaust a pokemon without incapacitating it.

Ripper hit perfectly and Caleb gasped, realizing that it was it. He wouldn’t get a better chance.

Scyther avoided yet another attack, but it was a close call. Caleb had to hurry.

He threw a great ball. There was a lot of discussion between trainers whether ultra balls were really better than great balls as advertised or were ultra balls just a glorified cash grab. Caleb tended to rely on great balls more as they were much cheaper which let him buy more. In his experience more lower chances were better than just a few higher ones.

He felt a lot of regret right now, as he realized that he would probably have only a few tries. If Ripper fell his only pokemon would be Vee. Caleb had quickly healed him while flying on Mory, but even then he would still not be able to last long against Entei.

The great ball hit Entei, making him momentarily disappear. The ball was already swaying even before it hit the ground, as Entei tried to free itself.

“Please, catch it!” Caleb pleaded.

For a second the ball stilled. Caleb held his breath as he waited— 

Entei broke free, wrecking the great ball in the process. Caleb internally lamented all the money wasted on it. If he missed while throwing a pokeball it would be possible to recover it later, but when a pokemon broke out, the pokeball was usually damaged in the process, making it impossible to use it again.

Entei didn’t waste time releasing a powerful Flamethrower attack.

This time it hit, enveloping Ripper. Caleb immediately knew his predictions came true. Ripper was out.

One pokemon left.

“Go, Vee! Show Entei what you’ve got!” Caleb shouted. Eevee growled without fear as it appeared before the legendary beast. Caleb truly admired his courage. “Try to avoid its attacks!”

As Eevee jumped to the side to misdirect Entei, Caleb threw another great ball, but the result was the same. Entei escaped the pokeball and then threw a fire attack at Vee. Eevee did his best to evade, but he just wasn’t fast enough and the attack hit.

Caleb felt a pang of guilt at this. He knew he should try to capture Entei again, but he had raised Vee from when he was an egg. He couldn’t bear to see him hurt again.

“Vee, use Sand-Attack!” he ordered. Maybe he could buy more time this way.

Vee didn’t waste time, creating a giant sand cloud that stopped Entei for a moment. Entei fired another fire attack, but as it closed its eyes on reflex, the attack missed.

“One more time, Vee!” Caleb called, he needed to buy as much time as possible. 

Entei roared in annoyance, as it once more found itself closing its eyes to shield them from the sand.

Caleb threw yet another great ball, but this time Entei managed to duck and avoid it. Without losing the momentum it jumped at Vee and stomped on him.

“Vee, no!” he shouted, as he saw Eevee lie unmoving. He wasn’t sure whether it was unconscious or just flinched from the attack. “Please, Vee, we are so close! Please, get up! I-I don’t want you to get hurt for nothing!”

Caleb realized he had tears in his eyes. Entei was doing nothing for now. Standing in some distance as if waiting to see if Vee would get up or not.

Suddenly, light broke through the dark forest.

The sun had risen, momentarily blinding Caleb. As he shielded his face from the light, he heard a weak call.

It was Vee’s voice.

Caleb squinted his eyes to see if his pokemon was okay. He didn’t hear Entei move for now, but he had to judge Vee’s health first before deciding what to do next.

As he lowered his arm slightly to look at Eevee, he froze. Vee was shining with light of evolution. Caleb could only watch, speechless, as he saw his pokemon grow bigger, his silhouette now more slender and his long tail splitting into two at the end.

Vee let out a slightly different cry than usual as he finished evolving into Espeon. The bright sun made it almost impossible to look at him, but Caleb stared anyway.

“Vee… Vee! You did it!” Caleb shouted forgetting for a second what he was doing. At least until Entei made an impatient sound. It had been gracious enough to not interrupt Vee’s evolution, so Caleb ducked his head in apology. “Uh, right sorry, let’s return to our battle.”

He took another great ball into his hand and threw it, making sure to aim well this time, but Entei seemed to have figured his timing and managed to avoid it, yet again. Exploiting this opening, it rushed forward to finish off Vee.

...and then it suddenly froze in place.

It was so unexpected it took Caleb a second to realize what has happened.

The paralysis finally kicked in. Entei was so powerful it managed to move against it until now, but the exhaustion seemed to have finally weakened it enough for the effect of Meep’s attack to manifest.

Caleb didn’t waste any time, throwing next great ball. He watched with bated breath as once more the ball landed on the ground, only to start to move violently.

And then it stopped.

It took a moment for Caleb to comprehend what had happened. Vee jumped at him, making excited noises as Caleb started at the motionless great ball.

He did it.

Finally, after all the effort and heartbreak, he had achieved his goal. He had caught Entei.

*

“So what are you going to do now?” Zahra asked, as she gently checked Caleb’s chest.

Once the adrenaline from the intense fight against a legendary beast wore off, the pain once more assaulted Caleb. Zahra was now checking him to make sure it was safe to transport him. They didn’t want to have a medical emergency on their way back.

“About what?” he asked.

“Everything. But mostly Entei. Are you going to keep it?” she asked.

Caleb looked at the great ball in his hand. Before he used to worry over that, but surprisingly, now that he achieved his goal and captured Entei the answer seemed extremely obvious.

“Help me get up,” he said, instead of answering.

Zahra didn’t press him on the issue and helped him raise to his feet. Caleb gently opened the great ball.

Entei appeared before him. Tall, awe-inspiring— 

—hurt.

Caleb let go of Zahra and slowly approached Entei. He expected it to flinch or try to run away, but it didn’t.

Caleb slowly pulled out a full restore, which Zahra had given back to him, so that the pokemon could see it.

“I know you would probably prefer a berry, but this is all I have. Please be still for a moment. I need to cure you,” Caleb said gently, as he slowly put a hand on Entei’s side.

The legendary beast still hadn’t moved, Caleb sprayed its wounds with the medicine. It took a moment, but soon Entei looked much more healthy. It made a sound that Caleb couldn’t identify.

“I… I don’t plan to keep you. I just wanted to face off against you,” Caleb admitted, as he moved to stand right before Entei. “Thank you for accepting my challenge.”

Entei made a small grunt as if acknowledging his words. Caleb smiled. Even with insistent pain in his side, he couldn’t help feeling happy.

“You probably don’t remember this, but I once meet you when I was a kid. And ever since then I wanted to meet you again. I… I’m really happy I could. You are as beautiful as I remember… I wanted to catch up to you. I—”

Caleb had to pause, since the emotions were making it hard for him to find words. He felt so many things at once, he couldn’t even make sense of them.

“I will release you in a moment, but before that there is one request I have for you.”

*

“Mom, I’m home!” he called, as he entered.

“Welcome back, dear…” her voice trailed as she approached him and saw the bandages on his hands. “What happened?!”

“Well, we might have gotten in a bit of trouble…” Caleb said bashfully.

His mother sighed, as she seemed to figure it out for herself.

“Right, I heard that there was some trouble with Team Rocket. Let me guess, Zahra got caught into it as usual. Is she alright?”

“Oh, yes, she just needed to visit pokemon center, because she insisted I shouldn’t do any pokemon battles when I’m hurt.”

The concern was appreciated, but it was annoying to skip all the battles when he still felt the newfound excitement for them.

“More importantly, mom, there’s something I need to show you,” Caleb said reaching into his bag to pull out several photos.

His mother took them. He smiled to himself, as he knew his mother was now looking at the photo of Caleb standing next to Entei.

“I found it, the pokemon from ten years ago!”

He could pinpoint the exact moment when his mother’s face froze in shock.

“You must admit, _it really doesn’t look like an Arcanine._ ” 

*

Violet City felt somehow different, though maybe it was Caleb who had changed.

“I heard you got injured,” Anthony said. They were both sitting in a small cafe, enjoying the bright weather.

“Yeah, my ribs got cracked and I got some bruises and scratches from when I fell down. Nothing too serious, but I got strict doctor’s orders to rest for a month,” he explained. He was grateful that Anthony visited him. He wasn’t used to relaxing like this, so he was growing a bit bored. “After that they will check my ribs again and if they have healed I should be back on the road.”

“I should have expected you wouldn’t want to stay any longer than necessary,” Anthony said with a loud laugh. “Speaking of people who can’t stay in one place, I hoped I would be able to see your infamous mentor, but I heard she left the city.”

Caleb sighed as he looked at his iced coffee.

“Yeah, she ordered me to rest and then left to continue journeying on her own. She said she wants to collect all the Johto gym badges since she already got one.”

“Oh, which one she got?”

“The Rising Badge,” Caleb said absently, as he drank some of his coffee.

“Wait, isn’t Blackthorn’s Gym considered the most difficult in Johto? And she started with that one?!” Anthony asked in astonishment.

Caleb shrugged.

“It was probably just an excuse so I wouldn’t feel guilty about her staying in one place for a month. She knows me too well…” he admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Anthony laughed heartily again.

“Certainly sound like that’s the case. You are two peas in a pod!”

Caleb could feel his ears burning. He always felt like there was a wall separating him from someone incredible like Zahra, but now— 

“Maybe you are right,” he admitted. “Maybe we are both reckless and unreasonable people.”

“But that’s what makes you fun. I don’t have other friends who will tell me ridiculous stories about how they fought with Team Rocket!”

Caleb froze for a moment, but then his expression softened. He used to think that he and Anthony were nothing more than acquaintances, but— 

“Yeah, I was really happy when you called me. Could we meet again next week? I could use some company now that I’m benched.”

Anthony just laughed again. Caleb relaxed as he looked at the clear weather outside.

*

“Wow, your Scyther is really incredible!” Wade said excitedly as he circled around Dagger. “So you took part in Bug Catching Contest after all!”

Luckily, Wade lived in Violet City, so Caleb didn’t have to break the word he gave Zahra to meet him.

Caleb took a deep breath.

“I… didn’t,” he admitted. “It was my friend who did and then she gave me the Scyther she caught.”

He could see Wade lower his head in disappointment.

“Oh… so you didn’t manage…”

Caleb swallowed, preparing himself. He knew it would be difficult, but it was something he had to do.

“Wade… I’m sorry…”

The bug catcher blinked, visibly confused.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I… I haven’t treated you right. I promised you I would go to a bug catching contest… I even asked you to remind me… But the truth was I hate those kinds of competitions… I thought I should take part at least once, but I couldn’t find the courage. So I kept ignoring your calls. It was pretty terrible of me… So, I’m sorry.”

Caleb hung his head as he spoke. It was only now that he realized how thoughtlessly he treated Wade. He was just a kid who was excited about bugs, but at some point Caleb started to treat him as a nuisance, because of a promise he made himself.

It wasn’t fair.

“Ah, no, it’s okay…” Wade said. “I… knew. I didn’t really understand why you didn’t want to go, but I kept calling, because we made a promise. So I decided that if you ever asked to stop calling I would, but only then.”

Caleb smiled despite himself, raising his head.

“You are a smart kid, Wade. That’s why I’ve decided… I will take you to the National Park so we can both take part in that contest,” Caleb explained. “This way I can make up for what I did.”

Wade’s eyes shined for a moment, but then his forehead scrunched.

“But you said you hate those contests… And my mom probably won’t let me go anyway,” he pointed out, sounding dejected.

Caleb gently placed his hand on his shoulder and bent his knees so that he could be more on Wade’s eye level.

“That’s why I want to go with you. If someone as enthusiastic as you will be at my side there is no way I won’t be able to enjoy the Bug Catching Contest. And even if you can’t persuade your mom right away, I’m sure she will cave in at some point. I can’t leave town for the next two weeks anyway, so just make sure to warm her to the idea for now. I’m sure she will be more open to letting you go if there is a more experienced trainer at your side.”

Wade listened attentively and then smiled widely at Caleb.

“I will do that, thank you!”

Caleb shook his head as he replied.

“Thank me once I make sure you catch the first place winning bug.” 

*

Caleb mostly drew during his month long recuperation. Aside from the photo where he posed together with Entei, he also asked Zahra to make a number of photos showing Entei from all angles. Knowing first-hand how faulty human memory was, Caleb wanted to have reference photos.

And now he used those photos to draw.

His sketchbook was filled with pictures of Entei. Sitting Entei, running Entei, sleeping Entei, sketches of his legs and paws, head and tail—hundreds of sketches made so that Caleb could easily draw Entei from memory if he wanted.

He still had much to learn about drawing, but his intense practice did result in visible improvements. He could now draw a picture of Entei, which while heavily simplified, still captured the essence of the real thing.

Caleb smiled at his newest sketch as he showed it to Vee. It was a picture of Eevee standing on Entei’s head so it could look around, while Entei looked exasperated. Vee seemed very amused by it.

As Caleb moved to show the drawing to Meep and Bell who were also currently outside their pokeballs, Caleb caught sight of the poster which Zahra gave him. It was the poster showing one of the few known depictions of the three legendary beasts.

Caleb had only seen them for a moment with limited illumination. He attempted to draw Suicune and Raikou shortly after returning to Violet City, but it was just impossible to recall enough details for a satisfactory picture. The few drawings Caleb made felt like he was just desperately trying to fill holes in his memory with images of other pokemon.

He would not be able to draw all three legendary beasts as he was.

Caleb returned to his sketchbook and started to draw a picture of Vee this time.

*

Zahra returned to Violet City shortly after Caleb got confirmation that his ribs had healed alright and he was free to resume his travels.

“I beat a bunch more Rockets, since apparently a single grunt is enough to steal a dna-modified replica of a legendary pokemon,” she mused out loud as she sat in Caleb’s room.

 _“Those pests make me doubt laws of evolution. Unless they are the so called weakest link,”_ Mewtwo sneered from above the desk where he levitated idly.

“More like the weakest excuse for an evil organization,” Zahra said.

“Are you two going to be alright?” Caleb asked. He couldn’t help worrying about the two of them.

 _“Those fools don’t stand a chance against my might,”_ Mewtwo announced confidently.

“Well, we should have at least a few months until Team Rocket manages to organize itself for any bigger attempt to steal Mewtwo. It should give me enough time to finish my paper on Eevees. And after that, well, I did consider travelling to Hoenn or Kalos until things blow over,” she admitted.

 _“”We shouldn’t run from those cowards,”_ Mewtwo replied in a way that made it pretty obvious that it and Zahra argued about this issue at least once.

“We are not running away. We are going somewhere where they won’t bother me so I can concentrate on my research. Besides, when we travel there I could claim that you are some sort of Kanto-only pokemon, so you would be able to spend more time outside the pokeball.”

Mewtwo made a displeased sound to signal the end of this discussion.

Zahra hadn’t said anything, but Caleb could tell that she didn’t plan to stop just in Hoenn or Kalos if Team Rocket decided to pursue her. She was most probably planning to travel to even further regions if necessary.

Still, Caleb wasn’t about to argue about her plans. As long and she and Mewtwo stayed safe it would be enough for him.

“By the way, when do you plan to return to Kanto?” he asked, instead.

“Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. I already bought a ticket. I’m leaving in a week,” Zahra replied. “Some business came up… But don’t worry! I will make sure to spend that whole time with you, so you will have fond memories of your mentor before she is gone to faraway regions!” she announced, a bit too dramatically for it to be sincere.

“I think it is too late for you to leave any positive impressions. And it’s not like you won’t be taking your phone with you,” he responded drily.

Zahra laughed loudly at that. Caleb could swear Mewtwo also chuckled by the way it angled its face so that it couldn’t be seen.

“You got me there. Yeah, I just want to make sure we have lots of fun!” she announced loudly. “So what do you want to do?”

“Well…”

Before Caleb could even start narrowing down his options, his phone rang. Caleb quickly picked the call.

“Before you doubt me. This is for real. The Yanma swarm is here!” Archie announced excitedly. “So hurry up!”

Caleb smiled to himself.

“Let’s go do some work.”

*

Even though he believed Arnie wasn’t lying _this time_ , Caleb still found himself utterly unprepared for the sight that greeted him on the Route 35.

Yanma were covering every possible space. Plants, ground, sky—there wasn’t anything that wasn’t covered by hundreds of Yanma.

Zahra and Caleb didn’t waste time, making a small competition of who would catch the most pokemon. They spent two days like this until all the Yanma flew away.

“I wonder where they are going,” Zahra mused out loud.

Caleb looked into the sky, tracing the disappearing silhouettes of the few stragglers that were now chasing after the swarm.

“Maybe you will find out someday,” he said as he looked at them. Who knew what distant lands they visited?

Zahra laughed.

“Yeah, I will make sure to tell you if I ever find out,” she promised.

He nodded. Somehow he felt much calmer about everything than he thought he would be.

*

The rest of the week passed quicker than he expected. He and Zahra visited various places, going wherever they felt like.

At one point they returned to Blackthorn City, so that Zahra and Clair could have a rematch. Apparently, at some point the two of them exchanged phone numbers. 

Caleb wasn’t sure if this meant that they were now on the route towards friendship or a bitter rivalry. Probably a bit of both.

Still, the day of their parting came faster than Caleb wished.

“Have you decided what to do next?” Zahra asked, as the two of them sat in a restaurant in Olivine City. S.S. Aqua was already letting the passengers to enter the ship, but Zahra decided to board the ship at the last moment. Caleb didn’t even comment on that—it was just like Zahra to live dangerously even when it came to such mundane things as boarding a ship.

“You always enjoy throwing difficult questions at me,” Caleb complained to buy himself a bit of time.

“Only because I want to see you grow even more. I would be a poor teacher if I let you stagnate,” she replied easily. “Besides you had a whole month to think about it. You at least must have some temporary plan by now.”

Caleb sighed.

“You got me. Yes, I’ve been thinking about it and I realized… I want to find Raikou and Suicune as well,” he admitted.

Zahra tilted her head slightly, as she was raising her cup of tea.

“Why? Do you want to complete the whole set?” she asked, as if they were talking about figurines rather than legendary pokemon.

Caleb shook his head to indicate it wasn’t the reason.

“It’s that… I didn’t get a good look at them. Even with some light form the fire, I only remember a bit of how they looked. I can’t draw them like that,” he admitted.

“Oh, so this is about _drawing_ ,” Zahra cooed, as if she found Caleb’s reasoning extremely cute. It was a bit annoying, but Caleb forced himself to keep his cool.

“Yes, I want to be able to draw all of the legendary beasts. And to get a better reading on their personality. Entei was very noble and patient, but I know nearly nothing about the rest.”

To Caleb’s frustration, Zahra was now quiet, obviously waiting for Caleb to admit by himself what his goal was. She was truly a difficult person to deal with.

“I want to make a picture book,” he finally admitted, feeling his ears redden.

Seconds trickled by. Caleb kept his head low so he wouldn’t see Zahra’s expression. He wasn’t quite ready yet to handle ridicule when it came to his new goal.

“Oh, about the three legendary beasts? That sounds nice! Make sure to send me a copy!” she said with genuine enthusiasm.

He blinked at her. She grinned at him in response.

“What? Do you think I’m such a terrible person that I would ridicule this idea? I was the one who taught you the basics of drawing. I know my rights. I deserve a free copy of your masterpiece,” she teased him.

“It’s not a mature goal like yours,” he pointed out, feeling some of the tension drain from him. “I thought you would make fun of me for not choosing something more grounded.”

She snickered.

“Please, my goal involves spending several years in caves to study Clefairies. And I’m planning to go into a voluntary exile to protect a foul-mouthed pokemon who thinks the human race deserves nothing short of genocide. I’m the last person who should be criticizing others for terrible life choices,” she replied, as she stretched in her seat. “Making picture books is one stable job in comparison.”

“Yeah, I want more children to know about those three beasts…”

“So that no other kid has to wonder what is the mysterious pokemon they’ve met,” Zahra finished for him, when Caleb paused too embarrassed to admit that part himself. He hunched even more hearing her words. He felt so terribly transparent when she stated it plainly like that.

Zahra scoffed at him.

“Don’t make that face! You should be proud that you’ve found a new goal! It’s pretty cool if you ask me, and I don’t think anyone else’s opinions counts more than mine!” she added more forcefully. Caleb smiled despite himself at how horrible her cheering attempt was.

“Yeah, you are probably right,” he said.

“I’m always right,” she announced with boundless confidence, as she rose from her seat. “Besides I told you, capturing pokemon is a temporary job. I’m glad that you finally found the road for yourself.”

As she finished speaking, she turned her head towards the big window which showed the docks. For a second Zahra stood there, looking at the sea through the window.

“I have to go,” she said, sounding melancholic for the first time. It was probably the only show of weakness she would allow herself before Caleb.

“I know,” he replied, also rising from his seat. “Let’s go.”

*

Caleb remembered once watching a movie where two people had a very tearful goodbye before one of them boarded the ship. He mostly remembered it, due to terribly integrated CGI Pidgeys that kept flying in the background.

Unsurprisingly, their goodbye was nothing like this.

“He still wants to bite off your hand, huh,” Zahra muttered as she made her last-ditch attempt to salvage the relationship between Caleb and Shredder. Caleb didn’t think there was anything to be salvaged, but, as always, he was willing to risk his fingers for Zahra’s sake.

As Zahra held the Eevee close to her to make sure it wouldn’t hurt anyone else, one of Caleb’s pokemon suddenly left pokeball.

It was Vee.

Caleb was confused for a second before he realized why Espeon must have appeared before them.

“Do you want to say goodbye to your dad?” Caleb asked.

Espeon didn’t answer, just looked at his trainer, before taking a step toward Zahra. Zahra lowered her rather confused Eevee to the ground.

Shredder seemed to have realized that he was standing before his child and he seemed rather unsure as to how he should react. Meanwhile, Vee got closer to the point where the two pokemon were standing right before each other. Due to his evolution, Vee was higher than his dad which made the whole scene look rather peculiar.

The two pokemon looked at each other in silence, before Vee slowly raised its paw— 

—and then slapped his dad so hard he flew back at Zahra’s legs.

Vee made a very satisfied sound and turned around in a clear demonstration of contempt, only to sit at Caleb’s feet.

The message was pretty clear.

“I think you found yourself one loyal pokemon,” Zahra said with a grin, as she rocked a very despondent Eevee in her arms.

Caleb smiled despite himself.

“Yeah, he will take care of me,” he said confidently, as he patted Espeon’s head.

Zahra put her pokemon in the pokeball and the two trainers hugged each other for a moment. There were no long goodbyes, because they heard the whistle signaling that the S.S. Aqua was about to sail and Zahra let go of Caleb, quickly dashing towards the ship.

Caleb watched, impressed, as she jumped on a plank that was already being pulled back on the ship and started to climb it nimbly. It was quite a show that made a lot of people question what had just happened.

Caleb smiled to himself as he left the docks. He had a lot of things to do.

*

“Thank you very much, Caleb. You are a lifesaver,” Professor Elm said through the phone.

“Oh, no, it is nothing,” Caleb replied, as his newly caught Phanpy pranced around him. He had caught and released a number of them over the past few hours for Professor Elm, but this one seemed to have taken a liking to him. Caleb had yet to figure out how to name her. 

“Have you had any luck in finding Suicune and Raikou?” Professor Elm asked. Caleb had told him about his goal, hoping for some help. Apparently, during the big fight at Lake of Rage, Caleb had gotten close enough to the two legendary beasts that pokedex registered at least some of their data. Professor Elm was now trying to use that data to figure out some way of helping Caleb find those two pokemon.

“No, but I ran into some Team Rocket grunts who confirmed for me that those two definitely escaped. It will probably take Rockets some time to organize again after their current leader was captured.”

Caleb wasn’t sure if Este was really the leader or only an executive leading that operation, but it didn’t seem to make a difference in the grand scheme of things. When Zahra captured her and turned her in to the authorities, it clearly dealt a big blow to Johto’s Team Rocket branch.

Caleb wondered how Zahra was doing dealing with the Rockets in Kanto.

“I see. I will make sure to work on things on my end. I will probably have to tamper with your pokedex a bit, but I used to discuss with Professor Oak a way to make the software detect where pokemon are. So far we only use the collected data to mark known habitats, but with a bit of time maybe we will manage to complete that programming,” Professor Elm explained.

“I would be grateful.”

Caleb finished the call and then crouched to give his attention to the excited Phanpy.

“You are one energetic kid, aren’t you,” Caleb mused, watching as the pokemon was literally unable to stay in place. “Hmmm, how about I call you Don? Do you like it?”

Phanpy made an excited sound and started to act even more hyper. She literally rolled into a ball and started to make circles around Caleb like a literal ball of happiness.

“I guess you like it,” he said with a smile.

Another phone call interrupted the moment. Caleb picked it up. It was Dana.

“Hey, I did it,” she said, sounding emotionally drained.

“Did what?” Caleb asked, confused about the sudden statement. As far as Dana’s strange requests went, Caleb wouldn’t be surprised if she was calling because she committed murder and wanted help with hiding the body.

“I talked to my parents, like you suggested!” she said impatiently.

“Oh,” Caleb muttered, as he managed to pull out a very blurry memory of him giving Dana some sort of very general advice. “Did it go well?”

“Yes! They said that if that’s how I’m feeling then they don’t want to force me to stay on the farm! They said I could go on a pokemon journey!”

“That sounds nice,” Caleb agreed. “Do you plan to become pokemon champion?”

“Eh, no. Actually, that’s why I’m calling you,” she muttered, her voice sounding strangely uncertain. “Truth is, I have no idea what to do now. I always wanted to leave the farm, but I never figured out what I would do when that happened. So I was thinking… Could you teach me how to be a pokemon capturer?”

Caleb froze, taken by surprise by this request.

For a second he wondered if this strange mixture of anxiety and joy was how Zahra felt when he had approached her to ask for her guidance. And then he remembered her words.

_“Besides I told you, capturing pokemon is a temporary job.”_

Someday, when he had succeeded in finding all three legendary beasts he would stop capturing pokemon. But that time wasn’t now. Right now there were pokemon to catch and people who needed his support.

“Of course. I will finish my business here and travel to your farm to meet up. For now prepare things you will need for travel. Just bare necessities—sleeping bag, clothes, portable food rations, and all that stuff.”

They discussed a few more things before Caleb disconnected. Don had stopped rolling around and was now looking at her trainer expectantly.

“It’s time to go, Don. We will have a whole lot to do!” Caleb announced.

It would be a lot of work, but rather than feeling daunted, he felt happiness.

For the first time, he felt like he had finally caught up to Zahra.

He smiled as he set off on his new adventure.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Caleb**  
>  Meep - Mareep (female)  
> Bell - Weepinbell (male)  
> Vee - Eevee (male)  
> Pear - Quagsire (male)  
> Mory - Skarmory (female)  
> Dagger - Scyther (female)  
> Vea - Eevee (female)
> 
>  **Zahra**  
>  Arsonist - Charizard (female)  
> Annihilator - Dragonite (female)  
> Ripper - Scyther (male)  
> Shredder - Eevee (male)  
> Reaper - Marowak (male)  
> Mewtwo (genderless)  
> Deluge - Lapras (male)  
> Zapper - Pikachu (female)


End file.
